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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Assessing The National Innovation System In A Developing Country Context: A Framework And Evidence From Thailand, Maleena Parkey Dec 2012

Assessing The National Innovation System In A Developing Country Context: A Framework And Evidence From Thailand, Maleena Parkey

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Coaching Equestrian Vaulting: The Motivation Behind Volunteer Coaching, Amy Mccune Dec 2012

Coaching Equestrian Vaulting: The Motivation Behind Volunteer Coaching, Amy Mccune

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The purpose of this research was to identify the primary motivations for people to become and continue as equestrian vaulting coaches. Using a nomothetic context for research, this study focused on gaining a better understanding of equestrian vaulting coaches by identifying factors that generally motivate their participation in the sport. The first research question related to what motivates someone to become a vaulting coach while the second question related to what motivates these coaches to continue in the coaching role.
Fifteen female coaches were selected for interviews from the American Vaulting Association membership. Interview questions were based on a preliminary …


Exploring Group Cohesion In A Higher Education Field Experience, Brian Malcarne Dec 2012

Exploring Group Cohesion In A Higher Education Field Experience, Brian Malcarne

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The purpose of this study was to gain understanding into the experience of group cohesion for university students participating in an academic field experience. A mixed methods approach was used following a two-phase, sequential research design to help provide a more complete explanation of how group cohesion was impacted by the field experience. The sample consisted of 112 undergraduate students involved in a 3-day academic field experience. The initial quantitative phase gathered pre- and post-test data on group cohesion using the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) modified for an academic context. Findings demonstrated significant positive change in the domain of social …


Building Social Infrastructure Through Public-Private Partnerships: The Case Of Student Housing In Public Higher Education, Bruce Cole Dec 2012

Building Social Infrastructure Through Public-Private Partnerships: The Case Of Student Housing In Public Higher Education, Bruce Cole

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Evaluations of Public-Private Partnership arrangements as alternatives to traditional government procurement methods for the delivery of public infrastructure projects have been anecdotal at best. This paper proposes a framework to evaluate a public university's infrastructure asset management performance and a specific measure based on a new concept of the elapsed time required for services to be delivered (i.e., Project Completion Time). The results suggest that the choice to use a public-private partnership as a project delivery method for student housing at a public university can dramatically shorten the overall schedule. This research will serve as the foundation for future quantitative …


Policy Evaluation Using Cost-Benefit Analysis: Empirical Ramifications For Two Policy Issues, Elizabeth Crouch Dec 2012

Policy Evaluation Using Cost-Benefit Analysis: Empirical Ramifications For Two Policy Issues, Elizabeth Crouch

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Using two distinct health policy issues my research examines the relevance and ramifications of using cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to demonstrate real-world impacts of the policies. My dissertation discusses how these two situations represent particular challenges to cost-benefit analysis. The challenges have specific implications for how scholars, agencies, and government entities should use CBA to evaluate policies. Specifically, my research finds that by separating CBA into four different approaches, a much more complete, and less assumption-laden, CBA can be accomplished.


Key Strategies Of Sustainable Real Estate Decision-Making In The United States: A Delphi Study Of The Stakeholders, Pernille Christensen Dec 2012

Key Strategies Of Sustainable Real Estate Decision-Making In The United States: A Delphi Study Of The Stakeholders, Pernille Christensen

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Sustainable real estate is a growing sector within the commercial real estate industry, yet there is still a lack of consistency among the multitude of sustainability performance measurements and reporting requirements around the world. As a result of this confusion, stakeholders have developed different strategies and requirements for sustainability, which in turn makes it difficult to communicate with other stakeholders about sustainability in real estate. Without the ability to communicate with other stakeholders about sustainability efforts, comparison of sustainable real estate becomes a challenge, thus impeding progress towards a competitive sustainable real estate market.
This study presents the results of …


Essays On Attractiveness Of Multinational Corporations, Nikolay Anguelov Aug 2012

Essays On Attractiveness Of Multinational Corporations, Nikolay Anguelov

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This dissertation analyzes selected policies designed to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) as a means of economic growth. The focus is on multinational corporations (MNCs) because most foreign direct investment is done by MNCs. The dissertation first shows the effects that the presence of MNCs has on economic growth before examining tradeoffs between direct costs (i.e., transportation and production costs) and policy factors in attracting MNC FDI.
Essays 1, 'Multinational Corporations and Their Effect on Gross Domestic Product' and 2, 'Competing for Innovation: The Economics of Knowledge Acquisition' examine how FDI in combination with socioeconomic, economic, and policy factors affect …


Serious Tourism And Consumer Preference For Sustainable Tourism Certifications, Richard Lacher May 2012

Serious Tourism And Consumer Preference For Sustainable Tourism Certifications, Richard Lacher

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Demand for sustainability oriented vacation options is on the rise as consumers become more aware of the negative effects that their travel may have on various destinations. Certifying tourism businesses as sustainable (much in the way organic food or fair trade coffee is certified) has been proposed as a means to ensure that ecotourism operations actually follow the principles of sustainable development. This study uses a serious tourism framework and a stated preference choice modeling approach to evaluate consumers' preferences for different types of sustainable tourism certifications. Additionally, willingness to pay (WTP) for different types for certifications is important so …


Nature-Based Recreationists' Perceptions Of Climate Change And Attitudes Towards Climate Change Mitigation In Natural Environments, Matthew Brownlee May 2012

Nature-Based Recreationists' Perceptions Of Climate Change And Attitudes Towards Climate Change Mitigation In Natural Environments, Matthew Brownlee

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Novel biophysical impacts from a rapidly changing climate are influencing resources in many parks and protected areas that host nature-based recreation. In addition to climate impacts, renewable energy initiatives (e.g., wind farms) aimed to mitigate climate change are increasingly converging with nature-based recreation areas. Climate impacts and climate change mitigation efforts in nature-based recreation areas have the capacity to influence individual and collective experiences, attitudes, and potentially behaviors. However, little is known about nature-based recreationists' interactions with climate-influenced resources, and how these interactions may influence perceptions of climate change and attitudes towards mitigation efforts. This dissertation addresses this lack of …


Transnational Leisure And Travel Experience Of Second-Generation Chinese-Americans, Wei-Jue Huang May 2012

Transnational Leisure And Travel Experience Of Second-Generation Chinese-Americans, Wei-Jue Huang

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In the past, international migration often required immigrants to uproot themselves completely from their old society in order to build a new home, start a new life, and pledge allegiance to a new country. However, new transportation and communication technologies allow contemporary immigrants to live in two worlds and maintain virtual and physical contact with their homeland through leisure and tourism. The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of second-generation immigrants as they engage in transnational leisure activities and trips to their homeland, as well as explore the relationship between second-generation immigrants' transnational homeland attachment and …


Marketing In An Automobile Dependent Society: An Analysis Of Consumer-Oriented, Industry-Produced Advertising Material, John Ridout May 2012

Marketing In An Automobile Dependent Society: An Analysis Of Consumer-Oriented, Industry-Produced Advertising Material, John Ridout

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Despite the best intentions of public policy to cure societal ills, for the individual American consumer, the solution to the problem of automobile dependence is simple: buy an automobile. Consumers are alleviating societal pressure of not having a car rather than focusing on the negative impacts of vehicle usage after the purchase. Marketing and advertising play an important role in portraying how the public views transportation. Marketing reinforces automobile dependence and automobility by creating images and messages that say the norm of American life requires an automobile; therefore, marketing creates, controls, and reinforces values within the automobile consumer culture. Addressing …


The Relationship Between Changes In Business Structure And Tourism Growth And Development In Charleston, South Carolina, 1899-1999, Katharine Sparks May 2012

The Relationship Between Changes In Business Structure And Tourism Growth And Development In Charleston, South Carolina, 1899-1999, Katharine Sparks

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The dissertation investigates how a medium-sized U.S. city (Charleston, SC) transformed itself from an old depressed port, with a predominance of manufacturing industries, to one that is a popular international tourist destination. The research seeks to answer the following questions:
* What urban processes have been most influential in shaping the tourism product?
* Can Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model be used as a basis for measuring tourism growth in the Tourism Business District of a U.S. city?
* Is the change in a city's business structure related to the growth of the tourism industry?
* What measures …