Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons^™

An Empirical Study Of The Relationship Between Board Chairperson Activism, Board Gender Diversity, Board Gender Inclusion, And Firm Performance, Phyu Phyu Aung Myint

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation empirically examined the effect of board chairperson activism and board chairperson power on board gender diversity, board gender inclusion, and firm performance using a sample of boards of Fortune 500 firms. Board chairperson activism, in this dissertation context, refers to board chairpersons taking actions such as speaking out on, advocating for, or actively supporting gender equality or women leadership in business. Board gender diversity refers to the gender heterogeneity of directors in the boards whereas board gender inclusion refers to the extent to which women directors are given opportunity to participate and contribute to …

Competencies Of Modern Musician Entrepreneurs: The Role Of Digitalization In The Music Industry, Richard A. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The culture creation industries are undergoing a period of accelerated digitization, globalization, and democratization. The 21st century music industry is bustling with lowered barriers to entry, increased knowledge sharing, and direct to consumer models which have resulted in a gold rush of entrepreneurial opportunities for musicians and increased competition to music firms and superstars. The music industry has been subject to innovative disruption providing valuable insight on the nuances of this paradigm shift for music entrepreneurs and scholars alike. Specifically, I explore competency factors in artist’s journey from musicians to entrepreneurs with successful self-managed careers. Employing Lazear’s Theory of Balanced …

The Role Of The Similarity Between Suppliers' And Buyers' Sustainability Practices In Improving Suppliers' Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Kwanheui Cheon

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability has become an essential component of corporate survival and prosperity. As a result, companies are eager to introduce sustainability to every part of their businesses. In addition, because stakeholders' interest has spread from companies to their entire supply chain, companies must manage their relationships with other supply chain members regarding sustainability. Consequently, there has been an interest in investigating the implementation and management of sustainability along supply chains. However, there are still voids in sustainable supply chain management research. For example, scholars have pointed out the need for research on sustainability from a supplier perspective as opposed to the …

Before Turning Into Ashes: A Study Of Entrepreneurial Cognition, Learning, And Exit, Azadeh Zamanian

Theses and Dissertations

Entrepreneurial practices such as discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities, decision-making, and problem solving are influenced by mental processes and cognitive mechanisms. Decision-making studies in the field of entrepreneurship confirm that entrepreneurs have strong tendency to use cognitive mechanisms such as biases and heuristics to simplify their decision-making processes. Compared to non-entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs show higher levels of cognitive bias.

By focusing on cognitive mechanisms of entrepreneurs, this study answers the question of why some individuals insist on continuing their entrepreneurial journey while failure-related phenomena such as critical setbacks and counterfactual thoughts exist.

Unlike the prior research that have focused on …

The Impact Of An Executive High Performance Work System On Business Model Innovation, Ravi Bala

Theses and Dissertations

Business model innovation is a phenomenon that has been gaining traction since the 1990s. Recently, a global survey of more than 4,000 senior managers by the Economic Intelligence Unit found that business model innovation was overwhelmingly preferred versus new products and new services (Amit & Zott, 2012). Both executives as well as practitioners suggest that business model innovation is ideal for future competitive advantage (Amit & Zott, 2012; Foss & Saebi, 2017). Increasing competition, globalization, and rapid changes in technology have all provided the impetus for organizations to reconsider the approaches they use to manage their numerous resources and capabilities, …

Hawkish Or Dovish: The Effect Of Female Ceo Leadership On Strategic Conformity, Organizational Innovation And Strategic Change, Hazel Husne Dadanlar

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. female labor market participation rate has significantly improved in the last 50 years (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007). Along with the broader female labor participation rate, the level of female representation at the executive and director-level positions has shown some improvement in the last 24 years, albeit at a much slower pace than it has been in recent years (Pew Research Center Report, 2018). For example, while the number of female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) leading Fortune 500 companies was zero in 1995, it rose by 7.4% by 2020. Despite some improvement, a mere 7.4% increase …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Ambidextrous Orientation Among Social Entrepreneurs, Sarah N. Kimakwa

Theses and Dissertations

Social entrepreneurship refers to the “the process of identifying, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities aimed at social value creation by means of commercial market-based activities and the use of a wide range of resources” (Bacq & Janssen, 2011, p. 388). Social entrepreneurs use market-based strategies and innovative approaches to address various social, economic, and environmental challenges. motivated by compassion, empathy, and a commitment for alleviating others suffering (Miller, Grimes, et al., 2012), they establish social ventures with a dual mission of social and economic value creation.

To meet the challenges of addressing pressing social, economic and environmental issues not tackled by …

The Role Of Sense Of Community On Knowledge Sharing Behavior In Makerspaces, Eduardo Jose Millet

Theses and Dissertations

Using the Sense of Community Theory and the Knowledge Sharing Behavior this study explores the motivation of members of makerspaces to share technical and non-technical knowledge in this type of creative spaces. In makerspaces, individuals are expected to share what they know with others to solve design and fabrication problems. Most of the sharing occurs when experienced makers transfer knowledge to the novice makers. This behavior is what motivates this dissertation. Unlike traditional knowledge sharing that happens in formal organizations, makerspace participants engage in the knowledge sharing behavior differently; they share in an informal manner creating value for makerspaces and …

The Elicitation And Functionality Of Contempt In The Workplace: A Values-Based Perspective, Gerardo A. Miranda

Theses and Dissertations

Organizational behavior research on the “moral emotions” has rapidly increased in the past few years (Greenbaum, Bonner, Gray & Mawritz, 2020). However, specific emotions have been researched to different extents. In particular, contempt has received relatively less attention than other emotions, perhaps, due to the confusion surrounding its distinction from related emotions such as disgust and anger (Greenbaum et al., 2020). At the same time, there is evidence of contempt being experienced since antiquity (Pakaluk, 2018), across cultures (Ekman & Friesen, 1986), and more recently in organizations (Pelzer, 2005). I argue that it is important to understand the role of …

A Darker Shade Of Gray: An Empirical Examination Of Gray Swans In The Supply Chain, Tony N.K. Lynch

Theses and Dissertations

The complexity and interconnectedness of markets creates risks in the global supply chain and may lead to various types of disruptions. Prior research in the supply chain management literature has focused on some aspect of disruption and firm performance. However, the effect of Gray Swans on various aspects of firms’ operational or financial performance is an under-research area. Understanding why managers often underestimate and overlook Gray Swans contributes to ongoing conversation of risk in the global supply chain. Gray Swans are defined as low probability risk events that if/when they occur can have a severe or catastrophic impact on a …

Effects Of Employee Personality On The Relationships Between Experienced Incivility, Emotional Exhaustion, And Perpetrated Incivility, Jennifer L. Welbourne, Gerardo A. Miranda, Ashwini Gangadharan

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Workplace incivility refers to low-intensity negative behaviors that violate workplace norms of respect. Incivility is known to be a type of stressor in the workplace, with recent research drawing attention to how it may differentially affect employees with varying personality traits. Drawing from a stressor–strain theoretical framework, we examined the moderating effects of four of the Big Five personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion) on the relationship between individuals’ experienced incivility and their subsequent emotional exhaustion and perpetrated incivility toward others in the organization. Results from a 2-wave survey of 252 working adults indicate that personality traits moderated the …

Three Essays On Ceo Activism, Strategic Choices And Firm Performance, Keshab Acharya

Theses and Dissertations

There is a longstanding societal expectation that business leaders refrain from involving in social and political issues and primarily focus on managing their firms. In recent years, however, there is a growing trend of CEOs taking a stance on controversial sociopolitical issues that are not directly related to their company’s core business. This dissertation consists of three essays focusing on this phenomenon of CEO activism.

In my first essay, given that CEO activism represents a nascent phenomenon, I explore the conceptualization of CEO activism. Additionally, I propose three main motives behind CEO activism: intrinsic, instrumental, and stakeholder-focused. In my second …

Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Essays Investigating The Founder And Backer Dynamics Of Crowdfunding, Ruben Ceballos

Theses and Dissertations

Crowdfunding provides the opportunity for entrepreneurs to acquire capital for their projects by utilizing a platform that allows the masses to provide funds towards the completion of the project. Thus, it can be looked at as two sides of the same coin. On one side you have the entrepreneurs seeking the funds otherwise known as founders, and on the other are those that provide the funds also known as backers. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors lead to founders successfully attaining their funding, what motivates backers to support the projects, and whether the founders can deliver …

Seeking A Perfect Match: The Effect Of Spousal Capital On Performance Of Family Firms, Xi Yang

Theses and Dissertations

The research about family business has received increasing attention. However, the research that focuses on the effect of owner-managers marriage on family firm performance is scarce. In this study, I argue that the family business manager's spouse can affect firm performance through firm-level and individual-level channels. First, I propose that a family business's firm performance is influenced by owner-managers marriage in terms of spousal human, social, and financial capital based on a family capital topology—a firm-level lens. I build a conceptual model of spousal capital in a family business and develop hypotheses. Further, by integrating the complementary needs theory of …

Busy Directors And The Occurrence Of Corporate Environmental Misconduct, Michael A. Abebe, Carla D. Jones, Keshab Acharya

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The occurrence of corporate misconduct is a significant organizational event that adversely affects not only the firm’s performance but also its relationships with key stakeholders. Corporate directors are pivotal in the prevention and management of organizational misconduct. In this study, we focus on the phenomenon of “overboarded directors” (those serving on three or more corporate boards). Specifically, we propose that busy directors are less likely to be effective in monitoring environmental misconduct given the substantial cognitive overload and a limited sense of alertness associated with multiple directorships. We propose that firms with busy directors are more likely to have environmental …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Leaders’ Security Orientation, Joseph J. Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

Organizations’ leaders are responsible for ensuring that firms’ proprietary assets are protected from expropriation. Firms are increasingly targets of large-scale proprietary assets breaches that jeopardize their ability to financially benefit from their innovation activities. Some firms have proactively built capabilities that allow them to protect their proprietary assets, while leaders are more security oriented and therefore do more to protect their organizations from proprietary assets breaches? Current research on leaders’ role in the protection of proprietary assets is lacking at the strategic level because most studies on organizational security have emphasized employee-level behaviors (e.g., da Veiga & Eloff, 2010, Lee, …

The Interplay Between Change And Project Management For Business Results, Taiwo O.O. Abraham

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigates the potential interplay between change management and project management. The research aims to determine the causal effect between the two concepts. Data is collected from a focus group comprised of various managers. The study concludes that managers readily apply the concepts of both change management and PM when making decisions. Also, there is significant appreciation of the value of both PM and change management in the contemporary business environment. Future studies need to investigate the relevance of the change management models on PM strategies.

Symbiotic Relationships Among Innovations And Sustainable Practices: A Supply Chain Management Perspective, Muratcan Erkul

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability as a business phenomenon has occupied the attention of academicians, practitioners, and consumers for more than three decades. While some firms emphasize on their own internal sustainability initiatives, there is a growing trend to implement sustainability across the supply chain. This increasing interest makes implementation of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices very important for focal firm's sustainability; however, the ability to create innovative products, processes, and ways of operating is crucial if an organization is to be sustainable. Although there have been studies that investigate innovation in the context of sustainability, their scopes are limited to a single …

Conquerors Or Cost-Cutters? The Influence Of Ceo Power On Corporate Restructuring And Aggressive Strategic Behavior, Ana M. Sariol

Theses and Dissertations

How do dominant (powerful) Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) influence corporate strategic behavior? Do they disproportionately focus on restructuring (cost-cutting or efficiency-enhancing) strategies in an attempt to run an efficient business? Alternatively, do they instead pursue aggressive (domain-creating) corporate strategies (i.e. engage in "empire-building") that not only expand the scope of the firm but also their personal influence? Current research evidence in the corporate governance literature is ambiguous when it comes to the relationship between CEO power and the choice of conservative vs. aggressive corporate strategies. Most studies in the literature use a piece meal approach and examine the influence of …

The Relationships Between Managerial Metacognition, Total Quality Management, And A Firm's Sustainable Competitive Advantages: An Empirical Investigation Based On Structural Equation Modeling Analysis, Young Sik Cho

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study is to explore how managerial metacognition has an influence on the effective implementation of total quality management (TQM) and the creation of a firm’s sustainable competitive advantages (P) by using the lens of Resource-Based View (RBV). In particular, this study conceptualized the existing TQM framework by two sub-constructs, technical quality management (TQ) and behavioral quality management (BQ) practices, and newly proposed the sequential relationship of 'TQ→BQ→P' based on the premise of the RBV. In addition, through post-hoc analysis, this study tested the mediation effect of a firm's TQ practices on the relationship between managerial metacognition …

Can I Smile With Spirit? Towards A Process Model Associating Workplace Spirituality And Emotional Labor, Ashwini Gangadharan

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Workplace spirituality (WS) is a framework of organizational values embedded in the culture of the organization that promotes employees to experience a sense of meaningfulness at work, sense of connection with coworkers, congruence of organizational values with theirs' and experience transcendence through their work. This dissertation presents workplace spirituality as an organizational intervention to manage the problem of emotional labor and its dysfunctional consequences among the service employees.

The main thesis of the dissertation is that workplace spirituality will enable service employees to appraise emotional labor as a positive stressor (challenge stressor) rather than a negative stressor (hindrance stressor). The …

Does Optimism Pass On To The Employees? The Impact Of Supervisor Optimism On Employees In Small And Medium Sized Businesses, Roger S. Brown

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The focus of this dissertation primarily examines the optimism contagion from the supervisor to his/her employees. Though the literature has discussed different types of optimism such as dispositional optimism (Scheier & Carver, 2006; Chang, 1998; Segerstrom, 2006) and unrealistic optimism (Weinstein, 1980; McKenna, 1993; Radcliffe & Klein, 2002), this paper will focus on trait and state optimism. State optimism (which relates to particular situation) is theorized as being easily transferrable when compared to trait optimism. The level of the transfer will depend on the emotional expressivity of the supervisor. The facets of emotional expressivity are impulse strength, positive expressivity and …

Top Management Team Behavioral Integration, Organizational Ambidexterity, And Small Firms' Performance: The Moderating Effect Of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Huy Quang Tran

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation research examines organizational ambidexterity (OA)–a concept first introduced in organizational learning literature and conceptualized as an interaction between exploration and exploitation–and its relationships with a managerial antecedent and an organizational outcome in the context of small businesses. Drawing on strategic choice and upper echelons theory, the present study suggests that top management team (TMT) behavioral integration plays a critical role in managing the interaction between exploration and exploitation. Specifically, this research proposes a positive association between TMT behavioral integration and OA. Furthermore, it suggests that small firms manage the interaction between exploration and exploitation differently depending on their …

Assessing The Impact Of Conflict-Type On Decision-Effectiveness In Top Management Teams: The Moderating Effect Of Attributions, Emotions, Conflict-Handling Behavior, And The Environment, Kevin J. Hurt

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Conflict is considered a multi-dimensional concept conveying both constructive and destructive overtones. Within a strategic decision-making team, conflict can have positive and negative effects, which collectively are considered `paradoxical' because they can simultaneously lead to improved group decisions along with decreased member commitment. Decision quality and commitment to the decision are a requisite of high performance; yet, some suggest that these cannot co-exist because of conflict's paradoxical effects in the decision-making process. The early consensus on conflict research suggests that one form of conflict, i.e. cognitive, yields positive effects, whereas another form of conflict, i.e. affective, yields negative results. Not …

The Influence Of Venture Creation Stage On The Relationship Between Environmental Context And Social Network Orientation Among U.S. Minority Groups, Tammi C. Redd

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The percentage of minorities who have owned successful small businesses in the U.S. has been astonishingly lower than that of Mainstreams. An important underlying challenge for minority entrepreneurs is the ability to development and maintain social network connections. This research investigates the role urban and rural environments play in the new venture creation process among U.S. minority groups. Specifically, this dissertation will focus on issues relating to network scope, networking ability and strength and network relationships at different stages of the venture creation process. The environmental contexts of both the urban entrepreneur and that of the rural American entrepreneur will …

Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Collectivism, And Job Satisfaction: Evidence From Mexico, Miguel Angel Baeza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a field study in a Mexican company in several Mexican regions. This study considered administrative professionals as a continuation to assess the validity of a recently developed Mexican Border OCB (MBOCB) scale by Ortiz (2000). This validation/refinement of an MBOCB scale was accomplished by comparing and contrasting results of this investigation, given the name of Mexican OCB (MOCB), with other OCB dimensions studies in other regions in order to evaluate criterion validity (e.g., convergent and discriminat) through factor loadings. Furthermore, this dissertation categorized these MOCB dimensions into more conceptualized terms utilized by …

Examining The Knowledge Sharing And Uncivil Behavior Of Envious Employees: An Affective Events Theory Perspective, Ankur P. Nandedkar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Envy is deep-rooted within human nature and considered as a socially undesirable emotion. According to social science scholars, competitive situations are breeding grounds for various feelings of ill-will. Researchers have demonstrated that an organization's systems and structure permit envy to exist and thrive even in the workplace. Within a workplace setting, various job-related scenarios such as positions held, promotions, projects assigned, job design, pay increases, and performance recognition can lead to envious feelings, which in turn, can have negative consequences. There are some organizations in which employees engage in close interactions on a regular basis and share a high degree …

Impact Of Workplace Stress On Job Satisfaction Moderated By Religious Coping, Celina A. Esparza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Workplace stress has been associated with negative job satisfaction outcomes, therefore leading employees to engage in coping strategies to minimize the consequences of the stressors. Although much research has been conducted on workplace stressors and their consequences, a small amount of literature exists on how women and Hispanics cope with workplace stressors or how people cope with the stressors in religious ways. To investigate the relationships among these factors, data was collected via an online survey completed by 268 university employees at a southwestern university. Self-report data collected suggested that both women and Hispanics use religion to cope with workplace …

A Qualitative Study Of The Hispanic Gender Role And Social-Cultural Factors Influencing The Attraction Process: The Recruitment Of The Latina To Meet 21st Century Labor Shortage Challenges In America, Olga Chapa

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Approximately one-fourth of the 303,824,640 individuals representing the labor workforce in the United States (U.S.) are part of the baby boom cohort (Toossi, 2004). Seventy eight million individuals are credited for the shifting demographics in the U.S. The largest gap in the labor force will be seen in the professional arena (Hilton, 2008). In order to proactively meet the challenge of a future labor shortage, organizations will need to focus their recruitment effort on the remaining replacement pool of qualified individuals. For a variety of reasons, the recruitment of the Hispanic as a sustainable and growing replacement pool offers many …

The Mediating Role Of Organizational Learning Between Absorptive Capacity And Performance In Companies Employing Enterprise Resource Planning Software, Edith Galy

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation focuses on the acquisition of information systems technology and how the acquisition of information systems (IS) can improve the performance of a firm. The central purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the literature that explains the success of IS projects. It addresses the organizational processes that contribute to the successful implementation of IS, and explains why some organizations achieve financial returns and strategic advantages from their IS efforts while others do not.

The population in this dissertation consists of top level IS executives in the US or Canada employed in firms who have implemented enterprise resource …