Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Finding The Ghost With The Machine: Breaking Through The Assessment Center Validity Ceiling By Exploring Decisional Processes Using New Sources Of Behavioral Data Within Virtual Assessments, Brett W. Guidry

Open Access Dissertations

Decades of assessment center (AC) research has resulted in an inevitable “validity ceiling” whereby increasing the validity of the AC method is becoming increasingly difficult. To overcome this challenge, new avenues for collecting and evaluating AC participant behaviors must be explored, with a particular focus on overcoming the inherent limitations of human observation—a hallmark of the AC method. This study examines detailed logs of AC participant behaviors captured automatically and unobtrusively during a computer-based simulation assessment. Using a decision making framework, basic characteristics of the new behavioral data are tested against existing theories of decisional efficacy. The construct-related validity of …

Identifying And Prioritizing Critical Success Factors For Fixed Base Operators In The United States: A Mixed Method Approach, Yu Wang

Open Access Dissertations

Fixed Base Operators (FBOs) are major service providers for the general aviation (GA) sector, which closely connect the public with the aviation industry. However, over the past decade, the U.S. GA industry has experienced a decline in the numbers of registered aircraft, pilots, and airports. Due to the fact that FBOs significantly contribute to the aviation industry, further research studies regarding the FBO-sector at a national level are needed. The purpose of this dissertation was to identify and prioritize the critical success factors (CSFs) that promote the success of FBO operations in the United States.

The methodology consisted of a …

Demand Uncertainty And Investment In The Restaurant Industry, Jayoung Sohn

Open Access Dissertations

Since the collapse of the housing market, the prolonged economic uncertainty lingering in the U.S. economy has dampened restaurant performance. Economic uncertainty affects consumer sentiment and spending, turning into demand uncertainty. Nevertheless, the highly competitive nature of the restaurant industry does not allow much room for restaurants to actively control prices, leaving most food service firms exposed to demand uncertainty. To investigate the impact of demand uncertainty in the restaurant industry, this study focused on the implications of demand uncertainty for investment.

The first essay in chapter 3 examined the impact of demand uncertainty on investment and how the impact …

Utilizing The Signaling Theory In Order To Enhance Minority Recruitment In Law Enforcement, Donald B. Terheide

Open Access Dissertations

Minority recruitment has been an emphasis for law enforcement agencies for decades. These agencies have attempted to recruit minority officers through different venues, including college visits, career fairs, advertising, high school visits, community organizations, and other avenues in an attempt to have their department more representative of the community. However, there has been a limited amount of research on the potential applicants’ perspective concerning how these recruiting efforts have persuaded them, and the messages conveyed to the applicants.

This dissertation has been written utilizing the Signaling Theory, and determining what signals are sent to minority applicants, and how they are …

Creativity In Organizations: Antecedents And Outcomes Of Individual Creativity, Goran Calic

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation I set out to expand our collective understanding of creativity in organizations. I accomplish this through three related studies, each organized into independent chapters of this dissertation.

The first study explores how demands of organizations, particularly strategic contradictions faced by decision makers, affect creative processes and products. In this chapter I develop the theory of paradoxical creativity, which posits that creative discovery is a function of how strategic contradictions are perceived by decision-makers. The key insight of the theory of paradoxical creativity is that strategic contradictions have independent effects on the two stages of creative discovery (generation …

Feelings Of Doing Good For Myself Or Others: Discussing Effects Of Self-Conscious Emotions On Sustainable Consumption, Chi-Cheng Luan

Open Access Dissertations

Consumers have increasing interests in sustainable products, but the actual purchase rate is relatively low. To find the reasons of this gap, previous studies focus primarily on cognitive factors of behavioral change based on the theory of planned behavior. Little research, however, discusses such a sustainable consumption issue from emotional aspects. Thus, this research proposed that self-conscious emotions play an essential role of sustainable consumption behavior, and such emotions are driven from private and public self-consciousness. Study 1 examined participants’ general evaluations toward two emotions and sustainable consumption behaviors. The results showed that empathic concern had a significantly positive effect …

Suitability Of Commercial Certification Assessments For Film And Video Editing Courses, Bobby L Chastain

Open Access Dissertations

A study on the microstructure development of as-cast Cu-Mn alloys based around the congruent minimum at 34.6 wt % Mn and 873 °C was performed. Initially, this was to evaluate the alloy as an alternative to wide freezing range Pb and Sn bronzes that are plagued with porosity. The shallow minimum and associated narrow freezing ranges around the congruent point result in a completely cellular (non-dendritic) solidification morphology for a composition range ~3 wt % Mn about the congruent composition (C _c). The degree of cellular solidification was found to depend on the mold material. Increased mold conductivity lead …

Strategic Public Diplomacy: Cultivating Relationships With Foreign Publics And Measuring Relationship Outcomes Using The Relationship Assessment Of Diplomatic Interaction Outcome (Radio) Scale, Lai Shan Tam

Open Access Dissertations

In response to calls for a tool to measure public diplomacy effectiveness, this study was inspired by the organization-public relationship assessment (OPRA) scale in public relations to develop the Relationship Assessment of Diplomatic Interaction Outcome (RADIO) scale. Its purpose is to measure the perceived relationship quality between a country and its foreign publics.Political, economic, cultural, interpersonal and corporate interactions are proposed to be antecedents whereas positive and negative megaphoningbehaviors are proposed to be outcomes. Perceived relationship quality in between the antecedents and outcomes classifies relationships into two types: experiential (those with direct experiences in terms of having visited …

Modeling The Impacts Of Hospitality And Tourism Enterprises On Community Quality Of Life, Sangchoul Yi

Open Access Dissertations

The present research examined the impacts of hospitality and tourism businesses on community quality of life using existing public domain databases. In the tourism literature, various methodological approaches have been proposed to investigate the impacts of tourism on a host community and its residents. However, these approaches are limited because of innate methodological constraints such as the bias of the survey respondents' perceptions. To overcome such a limitation, alternative research constructs have been proposed. Among them, Quality of Life (QOL) has become a good alternative for measuring tourism impacts. Accordingly, the present researcher introduced QOL as a research tool for …

An Eriksonian Approach To Consumer Identity, Sandra Rathod

Open Access Dissertations

Rathod, Sandra R. Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2013. An Eriksonian Approach to Consumer Identity. Major Professor: Richard A. Feinberg.

Ego development is the fifth stage in Erikson's Lifecycle Development theory (1959) and is a major psychosocial stage beginning in adolescence and lasting into emerging adulthood. Past research based upon Marcia's Ego Identity Status Paradigm (1996) has investigated a number of ideological and interpersonal domains relevant to one's ego identity, however in today's consumer societies, where what you have is at least as important is who you are or what you do, an Eriksonian approach to consumer ego identity (CEI) has …

Modeling The Marketability Of Tourism Small Businesses: Oman's Experiences, Hamed Ibrahim Al Azri

Open Access Dissertations

Tourism Small Businesses (TSBs) are vital factors in the prosperity of local communities and the development of authentic and satisfying tourism experiences. Because of their small size, they are unable to effectively use textbook marketing models and techniques. The purpose of this study is to help TSBs market their products in a way that suits their unique nature and business environment. Specifically, this study aims to develop a theoretical model of TSB marketing, identify the main factors affecting TSB marketing, and discern relationships between these factors. Since the aim of the study is to develop a theoretical model, the method …