Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Software Development: Insights And Solutions, Abhishek Sharma

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Over last few decades, the way software is developed has changed drastically. From being an activity performed by developers working individually to develop standalone programs, it has transformed into a highly collaborative and cooperative activity. Software development today can be considered as a participatory culture, where developers coordinate and engage together to develop software while continuously learning from one another and creating knowledge.

In order to support their communication and collaboration needs, software developers often use a variety of social media channels. These channels help software developers to connect with like-minded developers and explore collaborations on software projects of interest. …

An Exploratory Study Of How To Navigate Brand Management And Improve Sales Performance Through Control Policies, Pavuth Sriaranyakul

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of alcohol and tobacco control policies on sales performance when two central elements of marketing, communication and promotion programs, are significantly restricted. The study took place in Thailand, which has some of the strongest tobacco control regulations in the world, along with moderately strong alcohol control regulations. Under these regulations, tobacco firms operate in a dark market, with near-total regulatory prohibition on advertising, promotion, and even the display of their products. Alcohol firms operate in a less restrictive or “grey” market, as they face restrictions on advertising and promotion content, …

An Exploratory Comparative Study Of Experts And Generalists As Change Management Leaders In Non-Core Areas Of Organizations, Steven Glenn Burton

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Large-scale organizational change is a necessary undertaking critical to the ongoing success of most firms. Despite the necessity of such change, it is also an undertaking that fails at approximately twice the rate that it succeeds. Prior work on change leadership primarily looks at characteristics of the individual leader and does not differentiate on areas of the organization where change will be occurring. The work conducted in this research compares categories of change leaders and looks at change within a specific area of a firm, its non-core business area.

This exploratory research compared core-area technical experts to generalists as change …

Counting Members In My League: Mate Value Moderates Economic Effects Of Local Operational Sex Ratio, Zilin Yan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

When local operational sex ratio skews toward a larger proportion of same-sex to opposite-sex individuals, should members of the surplus sex increase or decrease (economic) efforts on reproduction? Past research yielded mixed results. In light of the fact that modern humans are highly mobile and can relocate to communities that may offer better reproductive prospects, it may not always be a given that individuals facing same-sex skewed local community will become current-oriented with regard to reproduction; instead, they may contemplate whether their efforts will pay off and decide whether they prefer to wait for better situations later. The present research …

Daily Satisfaction As A Joint Function Of Positive And Negative Affect: Moderating Effects Of Cognitive Habits, Indra Alam Syah Aziz

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The study aims to investigate the effects of individual differences in cognitive habits on the relation between affect and satisfaction in daily life. Specifically, this study aims to examine if individual differences in savouring, rumination and catastrophizing may moderate the effects of positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) on daily satisfaction judgments. 190 undergraduate students from Singapore Management University were recruited to participate in an experience sampling study in which they provided ratings of PA and NA across the day, as well as their end-of-day satisfaction levels over five days. Using multilevel modelling and response surface methodology, daily satisfaction levels …

Leading Mindfully In Dynamic Times: Can A Mindfulness-Based Leadership Training And Coaching Program Increase Leadership Effectiveness?, Nina Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This research examined the influence of a Mindfulness-based Leadership Training and Coaching Program (MBP), in garnering three aspects of leadership effectiveness; extra employee effort, productive performance and followers’ satisfaction with leadership.

We hypothesized that mindfulness-based leadership training and coaching program can influence leaders’ frequency in adopting authentic, transformational and transactional leadership behaviors to enhance leadership effectiveness.

We tested these predictions separately on two control and intervention groups. Results suggested that the combined training and coaching mindfulness-based intervention program had predictive effects between the practice of mindful attunement of leaders’ behaviors and enhancement in leadership effectiveness, even in a short span …

The Interpersonal Effect Of Guilt Expressions On Cooperation: The Role Of Social Perceptions, Nadhilla Velda Melia

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

People can make inferences about an individual based on his or her emotional expressions, and these inferences can affect their subsequent behavior. I conducted two experiments to investigate the social perceptions associated with a transgressor’s guilt expression after he or she commits a social transgression, and how these would subsequently affect the cooperative behavior of the victims of the transgression. Study 1 demonstrated that there was an indirect effect of a transgressor’s guilt expression on a victim’s cooperation via the victim’s perception of the transgressor’s benevolence, but not via the victim’s perception of the transgressor’s perspective-taking. Study 2 showed partial …

A Dual-Process Team Mood Framework Of Team Creativity, Sean Teck Hao Lee

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

While it has been recognized that mood can exert a substantive influence on an individual’s level of creativity, much of the creative needs of organizations today are being fulfilled by brainstorming teams rather than individual employees. As such, researchers have begun to examine the effects of mood on creativity in the context of teams. Existing findings, unfortunately, have not been consistent, such that positive mood has been shown to be beneficial towards team creativity at times (e.g., Grawitch, Munz, Elliott, & Mathis, 2003), while at other times being harmful towards team creativity (e.g., Tsai, Chi, Grandey, & Fung, 2012). Similarly, …

Nonstationary Panels With Unobserved Heterogeneity, Wenxin Huang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation develops several econometric techniques to address the unobserved heterogeneity in nonstationary panels, namely identifying latent group structures in cointegrated panels, studying nonstationary panels with both cross-sectional dependence and latent group structures, and estimating panel error-correction model with unobserved dynamic common factors.

Chapter 1 considers a panel cointegration model with latent group structures that allows for heterogeneous long-run relations across groups. We extend Su et al. (2013) classifier-Lasso (C-Lasso) method to the nonstationary panels and allow for the presence of endogeneity in both the stationary and nonstationary regressors in the model. In addition, we allow the dimension of the …

On Human Capital Development In Bangladesh, Sijia Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three chapters on human capital development in Bangladesh. The first chapter provides microeconometric evidence that access to electricity has a positive impact on the nutritional status of children under five in rural Bangladesh.

Context Recovery In Location-Based Social Networks, Wen Haw Chong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation addresses context recovery in Location-Based Social Networks (LBSN), which are platforms where users post content from various locations. With this general LBSN definition, many existing social media platforms that support user-generated location relevant content using mobile devices could also qualify as LBSNs. Context recovery for such user posts refers to recovering the venue and the semantic contexts of these user posts. Such information is useful for user profiling and to support various applications such as venue recommendation and location- based advertising.

Three Essays On Empirical Asset Pricing, Ming Zeng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This thesis consists of three chapters. In Chapter1, I show that returns to currency carry and momentum strategies are compensations for the risk of US monetary policy uncertainty (MPU), with risk exposures explaining 96% of their cross-sectional return variations. The findings are consistent with an intermediary-based exchange rate model. Higher MPU triggers position unwinding by the intermediary, which decreases there turns of currency with high-interest rate or appreciation, while that with low-interest rate or depreciation earns positive returns. Different responses stem from the long and short behavior of the intermediary. The explanatory power of US MPU risk is robust and …

Coping With Stereotype Threat: Multiple Identities And The Role Of Gender-Professional Identity Integration (G-Pii), Amy Jia Ying Lim

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Negative stereotypes concerning females’ inferior quantitative abilities continue to hinder females’ preference and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Studies on multiple identities show that priming females with a favorable identity, a social identity they possess that is associated with superior quantitative abilities, can reduce the aversive effects of stereotype threat. However, this line of research overlooked the fact that females manage their multiple identities in different ways and therefore respond to identity cues differently. This paper examined the role of gender-professional identity integration (G-PII), an individual difference on perceived compatibility of gender and professional identities, in …

Foreign Direct Investment, A Movement Toward Investors' Centricity, A Behavioral Perspective, Jimmy Wee Teck Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation proposal studies the determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a frontier economy from the behavioral perspective of a manager. There are many determinants used in determining a Foreign Direct Investment. These determinants range from economic, social, institutional, technology, organization, and commercial down to cultural distance. The objective of this research is not to duplicate the methodologies of many quantitative research studies that have been conducted, in which many economists use quantitative analysis of several years of data to determine the many factors that correlate with levels of FDI. The behavioral aspect of a manager’s decision is noticeably …

Exploring Offline Friendships On The Social Information Network: Network Characteristics, Information Diffusion, And Tie Strength, Felicia Natali

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The rapid increase in online social networking services over the last decade has pre- sented an unprecedented opportunity to observe users’ behaviour both on a societal and individual level. The insight gained from analysing such data can help foster a deeper understanding of social media users and the flow of information, while also offering valuable business applications. User relationships are among the most studied aspects of online behaviour. These relationships are not homogeneous. Past research has shown that people use social networks to both socialize and source in- formation. Hence, different types of links – used to socialize, gain information, …

Dispersion And Uncertainty In Density Forecasts: Evidence From Surveys Of Professional Forecasters, You Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation studies patterns of dispersion in density forecasts as reported in surveys of professional forecasters. We pay special attention to the role of uncertainty in explaining dispersion in professional forecasters’ density forecasts of real output growth and inflation. We also consider the relationship between survey design and forecaster behavior. The last chapter describes future research exploring the characteristics of forecaster expectations using probability integral transforms.

As a starting point, chapter one gives a summary of the literature that tries to answer, using data from survey of forecasters, the following three key questions: Why do forecasters disagree? What do density …

The Role Of Bilingual Interactional Contexts In Predicting Interindividual Variability In Executive Functions: A Latent Variable Analysis, Andree Hartanto

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Despite a huge number of studies examining bilingual advantages in executive functions (EFs), the research findings with regards to the relations between bilingualism and EFs are mostly inconsistent and mixed. In order to shed light on these inconsistent findings, the current research aimed to tackle on both conceptual and methodological limitations that are prevalent in previous studies, namely: (a) failure to consider bilingual experiences in assessing bilingual advantages, and (b) task impurity due to substantial influence of non-EFs processes on EFs task performance. Based on Adaptive Control Hypothesis and Control Process Model of Code-switching, a theory-driven multisession study coupled with …

Three Essays On Panel Structure Models, Wuyi Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In panel structure models, individuals can be classified into different groups with the slope parameters being homogeneous within the same group but heterogeneous across groups, both the number of groups and each individual’s group membership are unknown. This dissertation proposes some methods to identify the panel structure models under different specifications, namely, developing a Lasso-type Panel-CARDS method in the linear panel, constructing two sequential binary segmentation algorithms in the nonlinear panel, and using K-means algorithm in the spatial panel.

Chapter 2 studies the estimation of a linear panel data model with latent structures. To identify the unknown group structure of …

International Trade, Trade Policy, And The Wto, Wei Jin

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation comprises three papers that study the welfare impact of GATT/WTO, the effects of preference bias on trade flows and welfare, and the optimal trade policy with strategic interactions under a Ricardian model. The first chapter provides a comprehensive evaluation of the welfare impact of GATT/WTO in its entire history of 1950-2015 for 180 countries. The analysis embeds non-parametric matching methods in structural quantitative simulations. The results indicate substantial (but highly heterogeneous) welfare gains created by GATT/WTO at the global level and across more than six decades of its history. An extensive set of robustness checks with respect to …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics And Public Policy Evaluation, Yanying Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation comprises four papers that evaluate the effectiveness of public policies in Singapore. The first paper studies the non-tangible effect of a new non-contributory pension in Singapore on subjective well-being. The second investigates the effect of the same pension on labour supply, work expectations, private cash transfers and expenditure. The third evaluates a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of a new transitional care programme in a large quaternary hospital, while the fourth examines the effect of a large-scale housing upgrading programme on the resale prices of upgraded flats.

Chapter 2 looks at the non-tangible effect of a new non-contributory pension …

Essays In The Economics Of Health And Ageing, Yi Jin Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of four papers in applied microeconomics / the economics of health and ageing that analyse the causal effect of public policies, or of events / issues amenable to policy intervention. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the papers in this dissertation.

Chapter 2 investigates whether a major and growing environmental disamenity – dengue fever – leads to protective behavior that increases residential electricity consumption. Being near a dengue cluster leads to a persistent increase in electricity consumption in 4-room and 5-room/bigger flats (by 1.7% and 1.1% respectively). In addition, electricity consumption rises discontinuously when a dengue cluster’s …

Learning Latent Characteristics Of Locations Using Location-Based Social Networking Data, Thanh Nam Doan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation addresses the modeling of latent characteristics of locations to describe the mobility of users of location-based social networking platforms. With many users signing up location-based social networking platforms to share their daily activities, these platforms become a gold mine for researchers to study human visitation behavior and location characteristics. Modeling such visitation behavior and location characteristics can benefit many use- ful applications such as urban planning and location-aware recommender sys- tems. In this dissertation, we focus on modeling two latent characteristics of locations, namely area attraction and neighborhood competition effects using location-based social network data. Our literature survey …

Purposeful Building Of Social Capital And The Adoption Of Essential Tools And Technologies In Impoverished Communities In The Philippines, Chon Phung Lim

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Despite its popularity and a wide range of applications, social capital is a contested concept. There is also no agreement on whether social capital responds well to external interventions. Many scholars found no or, at most, mixed impacts that social capital can be purposefully developed. However, Burt and Ranchi (2007) and Janicik and Larrick (2005) provided compelling evidence that simple network training can significantly improve participants’ ability to see gaps in their network and develop social capital.

The manifestations of social capital are context-dependent and complex, and rarely map into a single discipline or methodology (Jones and Woolcock, 2007). Hence, …

Essays In Commodities And Freight Markets, Nelson Yap

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Chapter 1: Structural Changes in Functional Curves: Estimation and Testing

Abstract: This paper considers the estimation and testing of structural changes in functional curves that occurs at an unknown date. The functional principal component analysis is applied to the random functional curves, decomposing them into interpretable simple latent functions and random scalars. We model the random scalars using a simple autoregressive model and test for a change in parameters that occur at an unknown date. This method is applied to the crude oil futures market to estimate and date possible structural breaks during OPEC announcement periods from 1984 to 2017.

Three Essays On Social Insurance, Jessica Ya Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the economics of social insurance. Each chapter explores an aspect of the evaluation and design of social insurance in terms of nutrition, healthcare and unemployment.

The first chapter, Kim, Fleisher and Sun (2016) report evidence of long-term adverse health impacts of fetal malnutrition exposure of middle-aged survivors of the 1959-1961 China Famine using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We find that fetal exposure to malnutrition has large and long lasting impacts on both physical health and cognitive abilities, including the risks of suffering a stroke, physical disabilities in speech, …