Business Commons^™

Managerial Control Effects On Information Security Policy Compliance Intentions: Considerations Of Formal And Informal Modes Of Control, Shaun Eric Stewart

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the continued advancement in computer and digital technologies, companies, institutions, and organizations worldwide have leveraged new information technology to increase efficiency and effectiveness for all aspects of their business functions. Oftentimes, the information processed and stored on information systems poses an information security risk to the organization, employees, and clients alike. Therefore, a comprehensive and effective information security management program is essential to protecting data from accidental or intentional exposure to actors who wish to gain access to data to make a profit by selling the information to the highest bidder, utilize the stolen data for their own internal …

Mindful Brand: Development And Validation Of A Mindful Brand Scale (Mbs), Ellen Campos Sousa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to conceptualize and to define a mindful brand from a consumer perspective, a novel contribution to marketing and branding literature. The secondary purpose of this dissertation is to identify a set of characteristics associated with a mindful brand and to develop and validate a mindful brand scale (MBS). Previous research has demonstrated that consumers tend to create relationships with brands they perceive to have similar characteristics or values as they possess. As the number of individuals seeking mindful elements in brands is growing steadily, consumers are looking for a mindful connection with brands …

The Effects Of Population Diversity On The Economic And Household Welfare Of Metropolitan Areas In The U.S., Liria M. Litano

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper was to understand the impact of population diversity on household and economic welfare in all the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the United States of America (U.S.). We focused on positive views concerning the relationships between population diversity and factors such as human capital, knowledge, and innovation. We established economic growth factors using the Endogenous Growth Theory, which stated that human capital, innovation, and knowledge were significant contributors to economic growth (Romer, 1994). We argued that population diversity affected these contributors; therefore, it helped to create economic growth.

From a human capital perspective, population diversity …

The Effect Of Cross-Functional Integration On Organizational Performance: A Look At Collaboration, Coordination, And Communication, Loraine A. Jackson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cross-functional integration (CFI) in organizations involves a sequence of integrated tasks and activities across multiple departments and units. Modern organizations are hierarchical and have separated functional departments. This may lead to limited reciprocal communication and poor coordination. Work is often divided, categorized, and poses a challenge for CFI personnel to be practical. This challenge continues as technology and organizational structures change.

This study is to investigate the effect of CFI on organization performance. The study also looked at CFI from a triadic level of analysis, a broader perspective involving several functional units and processes within the organization. Specifically, this study …

Strategic Capabilities Of Emerging Market Firms, Mohan Song

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Strategic capabilities assist emerging market firms at the corporate level in developing and managing capabilities in the processes to better use resources and sustain competitive advantages. The umbrella of strategic capabilities includes ordinary capabilities and dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities focus on change internally and externally (e.g., existing resource base, external environment). The dissertation is composed of three essays.

The first essay, titled “Dynamic Capabilities of Emerging Market Firms: A Multi-disciplinary Literature Review,” provides a critical summary of changing views of dynamic capabilities processes in recent decades. The review aims to identify possible avenues for future research in emerging markets.

The …

Capitalism With Chinese Characteristics: An Ethnographic Study Of Transnational Chinese Corporate Culture In Southeast Asia, David A. Dayton

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Starting in 2001, China’s Going Out policy has encouraged Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and expats from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to participate in the global economy at an unprecedented rate. Tens of thousands of Chinese businesses and millions of expats now span the globe. Despite the addition of this large, recent, and influential population to global capitalism there is little academic work on PRC corporate cultures or expats outside of China. Even in Thailand, home to the largest Chinese community outside of China/Taiwan, there is almost no corporate culture anthropology and no systemic study of recent Chinese business behaviors. …

Political Misfit At Work: Examining The Effects Of Political Affiliation Dissimilarity In Selection And Work Processes, Alexander Snihur

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades, political affiliation membership has become an increasingly divisive social identity in the United States. Many organizational researchers have pushed for more investigation into understanding the effects of this salient yet understudied identity in the workplace. The purpose of this dissertation was to answer this call to action and examine the influence of political affiliation (Republican or Democrat) (dis)similarity on two discrete parts of the work process. Study one assessed how political affiliation (dis)similarity between a rater and a fictitious job applicant affected perceptions of applicant hireability through the potential mediators of applicant liking and applicant …

Determinants And Consequences Of Early Filing Of Financial Statements, Claudia Hernandez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of early filers (firms that file before their filing deadline) and to ascertain whether their accounting quality differs from that of timely filers. In 2005, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) accelerated the filing deadlines affecting fiscal year 2006 and onward. An analysis of audit opinions of Form 10-K from years 2007 to 2019 shows that the Audit Reporting Lag, or ARL (the number of days between the fiscal year end and auditor signature date), is 12 days or more ahead of the deadlines in approximately 40% of the firm-years. …

Family Firms In The Developing Context: Essays On Internationalization, Women, And Generational Changes, Maria Lapeira

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite a plethora of research discussing the effect of context on internationalization of firms, the family business literature has only recently begun to acknowledge contextual characteristics as important factors shaping family firm behavior (i.e. Carney, Duran, Van Essen, and Shapiro, 2017). The first essay, a literature review, adds to this conversation by unpacking how internationalization decisions in developing country family firms are affected by a number of resources, industry and institutional characteristics. This systematic review of family firm internationalization uses the strategy tripod perspective to understand characteristics that might have either a negative or a positive valence with respect to …

Foreign Subsidiary Management In The Contemporary Multinational Enterprise, Daniel S. Andrews

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As multinational enterprises (MNEs) expand into foreign markets that are not only heterogeneous but also change in an unsynchronized manner, the locus of strategic decision-making increasingly lies with foreign subsidiaries as a means of coping with complex multinational operations. However, although this shift towards more subsidiary autonomy seemingly represents a key building block of contemporary MNE strategy, existing international business literature offers little theoretical clarity regarding when an MNE’s headquarters will increase levels of autonomy over foreign subsidiary strategic decisions. Moreover, while prior research highlights increased decision-making autonomy as a key driver of subsidiary performance outcomes, several studies point to …

Perceiving Sociable Technology: Exploring The Role Of Anthropomorphism And Agency Perception On Human-Computer Interaction (Hci), Jose Pineda

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the arrival of personal assistants and other AI-enabled autonomous technologies, social interactions with smart devices have become a part of our daily lives. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these social interactions emerge, and why users appear to be influenced by them. For this reason, I explore questions on what the antecedents and consequences of this phenomenon, known as anthropomorphism, are as described in the extant literature from fields ranging from information systems to social neuroscience. I critically analyze those empirical studies directly measuring anthropomorphism and those referring to it without a corresponding measurement. Through a grounded …

Resolving The Telecommuting Paradox: Does Leader-Member Exchange Matter?, Ajay R. Ponnapalli

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior theorizing about telecommuting has proposed the possibility of a telecommuting paradox (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007), which refers to a set of mutually incompatible consequences that telecommuting has for employees. On one hand, a key theme in managerial and scholarly writings on telecommuting is that it provides employees with greater flexibility and discretion over where, when, and how work is completed. According to this view, telecommuting leads to greater autonomy and this in turn is linked to beneficial outcomes including greater job satisfaction, intentions to stay, and better job performance. On the other hand, some researchers and the popular press …

The Moderating Effects Of Neuroticism And Psychological Contract Incongruence On The Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Support, Perceived Supervisor Support, And Affective Commitment, Gail M. Hansen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The nonexperimental study (N = 279) investigated the moderating effect of the trait neuroticism and psychological contract incongruence on perceptions about the organization, supervisor, and level of affective commitment. Using Qualtrics, a survey battery was administered to supervisors who had completed leadership training at a single institution of higher education located in southern Florida, USA.

The findings of the present study provided new insights into the neuroticism scale items, suggesting that depression might be a hidden factor in more than half of the population. Another finding demonstrated that few individuals attribute a psychological contract breach to an honest misunderstanding. …

Tourist Responses To Tourism Experiences In Saudi Arabia, Faisal Mohammed Aldakhil

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A decade ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was not perceived to be a popular tourism destination except for religious purposes, the government of KSA has been proactive in recent years building new destinations, changing longstanding policies, focusing on tourism and hospitality education, and renovating its image to attract domestic and international tourists. Tourism contributed to almost 9% of the Kingdom’s GDP in 2018, around 65 billion dollars (WTTC, 2019). The purpose of this paper is to understand the sentiment that tourists have regarding the new tourism campaigns in KSA, to have transparent feedback about the experiences and services …

Examining The Effects Of Lmx Differentiation And Leaders' Relationships With Key Members On Teams: A Social Networks Approach, Chen Wang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A key assumption in the leader-member exchange (LMX) literature is that leaders struggle with developing and maintaining high-quality exchange relationships with all of their members. As a natural consequence, leaders typically develop high-quality relationships with a select few of their followers while maintaining formal and distant relationships with others. Such differentiated relationships in teams may have negative consequences, and this dissertation examines how LMX differentiation impacts team performance by creating task and relationship conflict. Furthermore, this dissertation advances theory on LMX differentiation by arguing that not all kinds of differentiation are the same. Specifically, drawing from the literature on social …

Analysts’ Cash Flow Forecasts, Information Asymmetry, And Financing Choices Of Firms, Mengyu Ma

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior research documents mixed results regarding the usefulness of cash flow forecasts. One stream of literature documents analysts provided cash flow information is associated with more accurate earnings forecasts, better accruals quality, stronger market reaction, and more precious information about future valuation. Another stream of literature claims that cash flow forecasts are a simple extension of analysts’ own earnings forecasts and are not useful. I contribute to this debate by examining potential implications of cash flow forecasts for information environment. My dissertation consists of three separate but closely related studies, which investigate how analysts’ cash flow forecasts are linked with …

Internal Governance And Litigation Risk, Mohammad Hashemi Joo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters that focus on the topics related to internal governance and litigation risk.

The first essay investigates the effect of board independence on security litigation risk. Based on the premise of the agency theory, our findings indicate that board independence has a negative impact on securities litigation risk. The effectiveness of this impact is also analyzed in light of the firm’s complexity and monitoring cost. The results show that board independence effectiveness is negatively related to the firm’s monitoring cost but is positively influenced by the firm’s complexity. Our results challenge the notions of …

Three Essays On Music And Consumer Behavior: The Impact Of Music Type On Product Evaluation And Purchase Intent, Gregory G. Maloney

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music is omnipresent in consumer environments and is classifiable by multi-dimensional measures of affect. This research explores the relationship between affect perceived within music, and how the resulting affective state created by music influences product evaluations.

Three essays explore the relationship between affect valence and purchase intent, the moderating influence of music arousal, and the effect of positive affect cues perceived in products. Four studies provide supporting evidence that music influences product evaluations in the same direction as the music affect valence. Experienced affect in the listener mediates the relationship between music affect and product evaluations, and arousal moderates the …

Understanding The Individual And Organizational Attributes Of Servant Leadership In Local Governments, Pallavi Awasthi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Servant leaders are driven by a natural feeling to serve first which manifests into a conscious desire to lead. The servant leadership style emphasizes internalizing ethical behavior, along with empathy and service orientation in creating value for the community which is critical in public administration. While the servant leadership concept has gained much interest among business management scholars, it has received little attention in public administration. This dissertation aims to fill this wide gap in public administrative leadership scholarship by investigating the role of servant leadership in public administration.

Specifically, the dissertation seeks to understand individual (servant identity and moral …

Three Essays On Risks Of Firms Led By Founder-Ceos, Yuka Nishikawa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three essays that focus on the topics related to risks of firms led by founder-CEOs. This research provides insights into how founder-led firms are different from nonfounder-led firms in terms of their operational and financial risk taking, litigation risk, and restructuring probabilities and outcomes. The empirical results are significant and robust.

The first essay examines the relationship between founder-CEO firms and firm risk. Using a sample of S&P 1500 firms, our empirical results show that founder-led firms are associated with higher overall risk and operational risk, and lower financial risk than nonfounder-led firms. We further …

Self-Brand Connection Effects On Consumers Goal Pursuit Behavior, Ahmed Mohammed Alradadi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While many marketers spend a considerable amount of their advertising dollars communicating the association between their brands and consumers’ goals, and although it is well established that consumers gravitate toward brands that represent images and ideals they desire to achieve (Chen, Wan & Levy, 2017), existing research is largely silent regarding when and how brands help versus hurt consumer goal pursuit. Thus, we need a greater understanding regarding when and how consumer use of brands to assist in goal pursuit is detrimental versus beneficial. Furthermore, the outcome of the consumer’s brand-assisted goal pursuit is likely to affect their relationship with …

Emoji Marketing: Strengthening The Consumer Brand Relationship And Its Downstream Effects, Tessa Marcela Garcia-Collart

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brands communicate and engage directly with their consumers using online communications that often contain emojis. While recent research has examined some of the implications of emojis within marketing contexts, a question still remains regarding the role of emojis in the consumer-brand relationship, and how this digital language can create stronger connections with consumers. In this research, I find that emojis increase perceptions of the brand as a human, thereby enhancing consumer-brand connections with favorable downstream consumption consequences such as word of mouth, click through rates, brand attitudes, willingness to pay, and purchase behaviors.

Findings from this research contribute to marketing …

Innovation Diffusion Theory And Social Embeddedness - A New Perspective, Xuan Tan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the impact of social embeddedness on the diffusion and adoption of innovations. Historically, the primary factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of an innovation have been the perception of its’ relative advantage to other technologies, its’ perceived compatibility to previous innovations, and the degree to which the innovation is perceived to be difficult to use or understand (complexity). The additional characteristics of observability and trialability have been shown to be less important. However, with the effect of social embeddedness, this situation has likely changed. Trialability and observability, may outweigh the importance of the first three characteristics. …

The Influence Of Employee Engagement On Discretionary Effort And Job Performance In The Cruise Line Customer Contact Center Workplace, Stephen B. Rodoquino Iii

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This nonexperimental, correlational study examined the relation among job fit,

psychological climate, and employee engagement and discretionary effort and job

performance. An Internet-based self-report survey was administered to a sample of 307

cruise line customer contact center reservation agents. The research hypotheses were

evaluated using correlational and hierarchical regression analytic procedures.

Job fit and psychological climate were linked positively and significantly with

employee engagement and employee engagement accounted for significant variance in

both discretionary effort and job performance. In evaluating the discretionary effort

conceptual model, after statistically controlling for gender, ethnicity and amount of job

experience, the results of the …

Perception Of Travel Motivation And Intention For Chinese Cruise Travelers: Toward An Integrated Model, Tianyu Pan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the decision-making process and predicting cruise consumers behavior are critical. This study develops and tests a structural equation model (SEM) using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Motivation – Satisfaction Theory to explain Chinese consumers travel motivation and behavioral intention in the cruise industry. Nine hypotheses were proposed regarding the relationships between second-order factor Motivation, travel satisfaction, and the original TPB constructs. Results of the study demonstrated that the integrated model fits the data relatively well, exploring the driving factors of Chinese consumers to participate in cruise travel. The path weight of every hypothesis is significant, and all …

Accounting Restatements And Audit Committee Director Departures, Wu-Po Liu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Audit committees play an important role to ensure the reliability of financial reporting. Audit committee directors could choose to depart if they perceive an increased likelihood of low-quality financial reporting. Moreover, their departures and market reactions could signal misstatement risk and the market’s attitude toward such departures, respectively. This dissertation explores whether the characteristics of audit committee directors are associated with the likelihood of departures before and after the announcement of financial restatements. Specifically, I examine if financial expertise, busyness, tenure, and gender of the directors are associated with such departures, loss of other directorships, and market reactions.

The first …

Workplace Incivility Toward Individuals With Disabilities, Secure Attachment Style, And Mental Health: Focus On Mediator And Moderator Effects, Mia Heikkila

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the value of workplace civility, civility has been replaced by social exchanges that include statements and behaviors deemed largely unacceptable and undeniably rude. One type of rude behavior that appears innocuous is called workplace incivility, yet incivility disturbs efficient functioning among employees, intensifies work stress, and poses a grave financial hazard to an organization. Literature expressly on incivility toward individuals with disabilities is virtually non-existent, although emerging literature reveals that employees with disabilities are at a greater risk of experiencing workplace mistreatment vis-à-vis employees without disabilities. This quantitative study investigated the role of workplace incivility with respect to individuals …

The Shift From Conspicuous To Inconspicuous Consumption And The Messages Hidden In Plain Sight, Jaclyn Tanenbaum

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the growing fragmentation of the luxury consumer market, the increasing mix of conspicuous and inconspicuous products offered by luxury brands, and the overlapping motivations for (in)conspicuous consumption behavior in the marketing literature, this research investigates under which circumstances a luxury consumer will choose to engage in either conspicuous or inconspicuous consumption. Three cross-sectional studies with experimental designs are conducted to test the proposed Triple C Model of (In)Conspicuous Consumption and determine if the proposed model can be used to predict, and ultimately change, consumption behavior among certain luxury consumers. The proposed model purports that construal level, sender cultural capital …

The Association Between Willingness Of Frontline Care Providers’ To Adaptively Use Of Telehealth Technology And Virtual Service Performance In Provider-To-Provider Communication: Quantitative Study, Hyeyoung Hah, Deanna Goldin, Sejin Ha

College of Business Faculty Publications

Background: Telehealth technology can create a disruptive communication environment for frontline care providers who mediate virtual communication with specialists in electronic consultations. As providers are dealing with various technology features when communicating with specialists, their flexible attitude and behaviors to use various telehealth-related technology features can change the outcome of virtual care service.

Objective: The objective of this study is to examine frontline care providers’ technology adaptation behaviors in the electronic consultation context. From the perspective of frontline care providers, we reapply and retest a theoretical model, reflecting a mechanism through which technology users’ personal characteristics and technology adaptation behavior …

Implications Of Non-Equity Financing For Firm Financial Reporting Quality And Information Environment, Md Safayat Hossain

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior studies in accounting and finance have extensively evaluated the way a firm interacts with, and subsequently responds to, its contracting agents under various conditions. Specifically, studies have explored the role of accounting information in mitigating agency conflicts and designing efficient contracts. My dissertation consists of three separate, albeit closely related, studies that extend the prior understanding of contracting relationships by documenting financial reporting outcomes of those relationships.

First, I investigate whether and how the presence of debt in the capital structure improves a firm’s information environment. Empirical findings show that, after controlling for all known confounding factors, debt is …