Business Commons^™

When To “Make” And When To “Buy”: A Contingency Theory Of Making Versus Buying Managerial Human Capital, Dhuha Abdulsallam

Theses and Dissertations

When should firms build talent, and when should they buy? There is theoretical consensus that internal hires would exceed externals in performance because of their firm-specific human capital. However, by integrating the creativity and innovation literature, I present a non-traditional theoretical view which argues that in creative environments with a time-lag on related expectations and outputs, externally hired managers would exceed internally promoted managers in several different performance- related outcomes. I also explore the social influence associated with the hiring origin of middle managers by integrating psychology and economic rationale to study the impact of managerial hiring origin decisions on …

“We Need Dawgs!”: Narrative Construction Of Athletic Identity Among Black High School Football Players, Victor Dion Kidd

Theses and Dissertations

Previous empirical inquiry of athletic identity (Brewer, Van Raalte, Linder, 1993) and participation has failed to examine how such identities and roles are developed at the high school level of competition. While focusing on salient athletic identities or role sets are important, research literature should target how devotion to athletic identities, roles, and responsibilities are developed and communicated to adolescent athletes by social interactions. Therefore, while adopting Narrative Identity Theory (Loseke, 2007; McAdams & McLean, 2013; Polkinghorne, 1991; Smith 2010) as an appropriate lens, the current study investigated how athletic identity, roles, and responsibilities are developed through complex interaction and …

Human Capital Resource Development In Teams: Antecedents, Consequences, And Scale Development Of Human Capital Resources, Jieun Park

Theses and Dissertations

Although a large body of human capital research supports the critical role of human capital resource (HCR) in unit performance, very little research has paid attention to how to measure HCR, where HCR originates, and how HCR influences team performance. Given the lack of a measure that reflects the unique characteristics of HCR (e.g., transformation of individual KSAOs through emergence processes), I develop and validate a new comprehensive HCR scale. I test a 14-item scale with a sample of 97 undergraduate students in 24 teams. Results show this scale is internally consistent, reliable, and valid. In addition, drawing on human …

The Importance Of Twitter To Destination Marketing Organizations, Tatiana Allgeyer

Theses and Dissertations

Social media has experienced quick and expansive growth since its beginnings. While the initial users were individuals, social media has become a melting pot of businesses, brands, and celebrities all vying for engagement from followers in the hopes of increasing likes, engagement levels and sales.

Destination marketing organizations (DMO’s) have been slow to adopt social media platforms and integrate them into their marketing strategies. The goal of this study is to analyze what kinds of social media content produces the highest levels of engagement in order to make specific social media strategy recommendations to the Columbia DMO, Experience Columbia. An …

Two Essays On Limiting The Negative Impact Of Product Recalls, Seyyed Amirali Javadinia

Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation is composed of two essays. In the first essay, authors conceptualize recall environment, test its effect on post-recall stock returns and identify the role of recall and product characteristics in moderating this relationship. The authors test their hypotheses on a sample of 90 recall announcements in the automobile industry from 2011 to 2016. The results show that on average, announcing a recall in an intense environment aggravates negative stock returns accruing from the recall. Further, while low reputation brands are mostly prone to this negative impact of recall environment, high reputation brands are less susceptible to this negative …

Measuring Long-Term Advertising Effects In The Tourism And Hospitality Industry, Rui Qi

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the intangible characteristics of the service product, the tourism and hospitality industry relies heavily on advertising. This dissertation is composed of three interrelated studies, with the overall purpose to investigate advertising effectiveness within the tourism and hospitality industry from a firm-level perspective. Longitudinal and time-series models were employed to analyze firm-level accounting, finance, and marketing data. Overall, results provided supports for the strategic value of advertising in the airline, hotel, and restaurant firms. The first study’s findings indicate that the economic benefits from advertising expenditures, unlike other expenses, do not expire in the current period. In addition, advertising …

Investigating Managerial Priority Of Environmental Inputs And Outputs In Public Assembly Venues, Walker Ross

Theses and Dissertations

This study was focused on understanding how managers of public assembly venues prioritize the various manager-perceived environmental inputs and outputs of the operation of their building when making decisions on environmental sustainability. Such research is necessary as there was little to no understanding of the operational impacts of sport on the natural environment. A survey of managers of public assembly venues that utilized the best-worst scaling method of experimental design and analysis was utilized to gather data that appropriately addressed the research question posed by this study. Findings suggest that managers prioritize the environmental inputs and outputs of their buildings …

Two Essays On Market Entry And Exit: Empirical Evidence From Airline Industry, Sina Aghaie

Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of low-cost competitors has increasingly eroded incumbent firms’ market shares and profitability in recent decades. However, incumbents are still uncertain about how to handle this new challenge. The two essays in this dissertation aim to contribute to the marketing strategy and competitive dynamics literature by exploring the link between incumbents’ marketing-mix activities and low-cost rival’s market entry, exit, and the threat of entry decisions.

In the first essay, I study a common and important phenomenon – the marketing tactics that incumbent firms employ to drive new low-cost entrants out of the market. Specifically, I investigate how incumbents’ price, …

Selling Rooms And Making Money In The Lodging Industry: Analyzing The Effects Of Revpar And Goppar Together, Thomas Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Based on previous research, revenue management now focus on alternative benchmarks for assessing bottom-line performance. The advent of alternative benchmarks leads to increased analysis of the relationship between revenue and profitability within hotel management. This thesis builds on previous research of revenue and profitability with RevPAR and GOPPAR acting as proxies for revenue and profitability to determine the relationship between the two variables as well as identifying their roles and analysis within revenue management as revenue management maneuvers toward a more strategic outlook. Also, this thesis identifies whether affiliation (independent vs. chain-affiliated) and hotel service levels directly affect the correlation …

Finding The Perfect Match: Dimension Analysis And Development Of The External Sponsorship Congruence Scale, Kelly Evans

Theses and Dissertations

The biggest problem interfering with effective sport sponsorships is marketing clutter and the negative impact it has on sponsorship recall accuracy (Cornwell & Relyea, 2000; Rumpf, 2012; Seguin & O’Reilly, 2008). Previous research shows that external sponsorship congruence plays an important role in how consumers remember and recall sport sponsors (Cornwell et al., 2005; Fleck et al., 2012; Jagre et al., 2001; Olson & Thjømøe, 2011; Solomon, 1996; Stangor & McMillan, 1992), ultimately influencing consumer attitudes and behavior (Close & Lacey, 2013; Gwinner & Bennett, 2008; Lee & Thorson, 2008; Simmons & Becker-Olson, 2006). Great strides have been made in …

Three Essays In Firm Financing Decision, Gerard Savio Pinto

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays on financing decisions by firms. The first essay examines the cost of borrowing in the syndicated loan market for recent IPO firms. We find evidence of informational rent extraction by IPO underwriters that lend to firms after going public. The (informed) lender affiliated to the IPO underwriter on average earns a 5% higher abnormal payoff (interest) than an unaffiliated lender. When these loans commence trading on the secondary market, loans originated by affiliated lenders increase by 97 bps more than loans originated by unaffiliated lenders. Thus, the primary and secondary market evidence supports …

Multiple Concurrent Framing Effects: Evidence From A Risky Tax Decision, Ethan Gregory Lamothe

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research finds an individual’s end of year tax position is framed by expectations (e.g., prior year tax position) and withholding position (i.e., refund vs additional taxes due), and suggests individuals concurrently maintain and are influenced by multiple reference points. In this study, I examine a theoretical explanation for how multiple reference points can influence an individual’s decisions even though the shape of the prospect theory value function is based on a single reference point. Specifically, I predict expectations influence decisions through a risky choice framing effect which is caused by diminishing sensitivity in the prospect theory value function while …

Self-Affirmation And Perspective Taking In Organizations: An Integrated Framework For Examining Process-Oriented Phenomena As Trajectories Of Change, Patrick J. Flynn

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals’ perceptions of their fit within in an organization unfold as a process over time that is subject to influence and change. This dissertation is a program of research that takes a process-oriented approach to understanding change from patterns of outcome trajectories and trajectory changes. Appendix A presents a study that introduces a conceptual framework for a temporal approach to change. Appendix A showed that strong events serve to change the trajectory of individuals’ affective commitment. Appendix B presents a first intervention study with surprising results where instead of self-affirmation, perspective taking appeared to facilitate positive trajectory changes in individuals’ …

Child Sport Fan Behavior: An Examination Of The Effects Of Socialization, Branding, And Alternatives On Children’S Psychological Connections To Sports Teams, Katherine Rose Nakamoto Reifurth

Theses and Dissertations

This three-study dissertation focuses on child fans of professional sport teams and the ways in which they become fans and attach themselves and connect to these sport brands. In Study 1, the researchers focused on the socialization into fandom of young children and the effects of communities and the game-day environment on this socialization utilizing qualitative observations and interviews with children ages 6 to 14 and resulted in an expanded understanding of the dame-day aspects that attract and excite children most. In Study 2, the researchers focused on the aspects of a new team’s brand that children ages 5 to …

Three Essays On Banking, Xinming Li

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation includes three essays related to banking. In the first essay, I identify an important channel through which stronger legal enforcement boosts the real economy – by increasing bank liquidity creation. Results suggest that effective enforceability of contracts increases total, asset-side, liability-side, and off-balance sheet- side liquidity creation, implying favorable causal real economic effects.

In the second essay, we conduct the first broad-based international study on bank- level failures covering 92 countries over 2000-2014 and investigate national culture values as bank failure determinants. We find individualism and masculinity are positively associated with bank failure but operate through different channels. …

Estimating Chance For Success In Shale Gas Development Based On The Case Of The United States, Moira Lennon

Senior Theses

Natural gas, commonly extracted through the hydraulic fracturing of shale basins, has the potential to provide an abundant supply of energy that is more sustainable than other fossil fuels. Due to the complicated and risky nature of the hydraulic fracturing process, only the United States has developed the technology on a large scale. However, in the face of increasing global energy demands and vast supplies worldwide in virtually untapped basins, other countries may want to explore the potential development of this industry. Existing literature on Poland, Mexico, and China are analyzed to assess their similarity to the US in regard …

Innovative And Introverted: How Introverts Function In The Creative Workplace, Rose Needle

Senior Theses

Open office plans have become the dominant style for creative workplaces, designed to encourage constant collaboration and proximity. Little research assesses the validity of that conventional practice, or the impact of open environments on creativity, productivity or employee satisfaction for introverts, who require time alone for highest functioning. Though the “Extrovert Ideal” permeates these industries, nearly 50% of the general population is introverted—and introverted traits correlate positively with creativity. This thesis includes a survey of 143 people working in creative industries, assessing perceptions of productivity and satisfaction along with personality type. A majority of respondents yearned for solitude to complete …

Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Spanish Wines (And A Few Things You Did), John Phillips Wacker

Senior Theses

The Spanish wine scene is incredibly diverse, and an immense number of different wines are made in the country. Likewise, Spain is incredibly rich in culture, with a wide array of languages, histories, cultures, and cuisines found throughout the nation. The sheer number and variety of Spanish wines and the incredible variety of cultures found in Spain may be daunting to the uninitiated. Thus, a guide to Spanish wine and culture, which not only details the two but links them, as well, may prove very helpful to the Spanish wine newcomer or perhaps even a sommelier.

This thesis-guide was compiled …

The Influence Of Consumer Inference About A Company’S Motive On Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) Evaluation, Taehoon Park

Theses and Dissertations

The author investigates the roles of consumer inferences and consumer suspicion in responses to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities by companies.

Chapter 1 examines how consumers infer a company’s motive for its prosocial activity when the same company is also involved in a socially harmful accident. When a company is involved in both CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and CSI (Corporate Social Irresponsibility), consumers can infer the motive for the CSR campaign from the temporal order of these two events. The author further proposes that this effect will be moderated by perceived invested effort in CSR campaign. Specifically, high effort invested …

Reappraising International Business In A Digital Arena: Barriers, Strategies, And Context For Internationalization Of Digital Innovations, Noman Ahmed Shaheer

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation builds on the eclectic paradigm to explore internationalization strategies in the burgeoning digital economy through a rigorous empirical analysis of a unique big data archive tracking international penetrations of more than 1.5 million mobile apps across 58 countries. While traditional firms internationalize by internalizing physical assets to reap location advantages from foreign markets, many digital businesses internationalize by orchestrating networks of information flows across borders. Such digital internationalization may not be constrained by cross-national distance or lack of resources as digital businesses leverage globally disperse knowledge and innovation networks to develop scale free digital innovations and seamlessly transmit …

A Model Of Impression Formation In Recruitment, Jonathan Levi Hendricks

Theses and Dissertations

Applicant impressions of organizations are a critical antecedent to applicant decisions within the recruitment process. Recruitment research has examined how applicant perceptions are influenced by organization-specific information within a given industry. However, current recruitment models fail to describe the process of impression formation during recruitment, which inhibits understanding of the recruitment process. Specifically, only limited research has considered how applicants integrate context- related associations (such as perceptions about an industry) with recruitment materials in forming initial perceptions about the organization. Over the course of two experimental studies, I integrate social cognitive research on impression formation into recruitment models to develop …

The Effects Of Product Feature Complexity, Market Activity, And Update Scheduling On Mobile App Life Cycles, Moonwon Chung

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid advancements in telecommunication devices and the emergence of the mobile app ecosystem have immensely impacted our lives. Innovative apps have helped improve market efficiency in agriculture, contributed to environmental sustainability through peer-to-peer sharing services, and stimulated financial inclusion in developing economies. However, mobile app developers have to deal with challenges that can hinder the app to reach its full potential. In order to achieve commercial success in the hyper-competitive business landscape where freemium business models are dominating, developers need deep understanding on how non-price operational levers such as product design, delivery, and continued service lead to user adoption.

From …

Premium Seating In College Athletics: Trends Of Today And The Future, Kendra Holaday

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assist college athletic departments in attracting more fans to premium seating areas within their football stadiums. Existing research covers professional sporting venues in depth, but lacks volume regarding collegiate athletics. Due to the minimal knowledge and research recorded on premium seating in college football venues, there is a crucial need for the gap in research to be filled. The interviewing method and qualitative research was used to gain information on premium seating within college football venues. During the interview process existing premium seating, renovations in progress, and future addition plans were all explored. …