Business Commons^™

New Product Development Team Creativity And Innovation: The Role Of Cultural Diversity, Communication, Proximity And Foreign Culture Representativeness, Felix A. Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores new product development team creativity and innovation. Section 1 discusses the definition, measurement and relevance of new product development team creativity. It highlights some of the discrepancies in the literature with regards to the definition and operationalization of creativity, and adopts a definition and scale, that will serve as the foundation for section 2 and 3 studies.

Section 2 examines the influence of several dimensions of cultural diversity on new product development creativity and innovation, during differing stages of new product development, and in both co-located and domestic environments.

Section 3 extends section 2 by examining the …

Corporate Sponsorship And The Consumer Socialization Of African American Women Athletes: A Qualitative Study, Tahla Monique Wade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

African-American consumption is a unique feature of the American consumer market. A characteristic of African American consumers is their participation in conspicuous consumption. A look into the sociological concept of consumer socialization can drive insight to what initiates purchases of this group. However, this is not studied as an evolving process. Over time, individuals may encounter several new influences that affect their consumer socialization and purchase behavior, including the possibility of corporate sponsorship. To explore this evolution, I examine if corporate sponsorships affect the consumer socialization of African-American women collegiate athletes. Fifteen NCAA Division I African-American women athletes from a …

Essays On The Role Of Product Characteristics In Information Source Importance, Saeed Tajdini Tajdini

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this Dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of relative importance of different information sources that consumers use to guide their purchasing behavior. Specifically, this work aims to model the product characteristics affecting the importance of each information source to consumers as they seek to purchase a given product. Although the extant literature has examined this topic, the efforts have not been cohesive and a comprehensive model of the phenomenon has yet to be developed, limiting our understanding of the topic. Gaining insight into the effects of product characteristics on the importance of different sources of information …

Asset Management Support Tools To Assist Agencies In The Development Of Guardrail Preservation Programs, Sandra N. Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this Thesis is to develop a Guardrail Asset Management Framework and a Condition-Based Model to assist agencies in the development of guardrail preservation programs. Both of the guardrail asset management tools can be incorporated into an existing asset management program to assist agencies in utilizing guardrail inventory to forecast key asset management parameters such as the guardrail condition, funds necessary for maintenance and repair, backlogged funding, guardrail system value, and the guardrail sustainability ratio. Each of these parameters is described and determined for a case study involving six scenarios modeling funding and maintenance constraints that can arise …

Instilling Positive Beliefs About Organ Donation: An Information Processing Approach, Gerardo Jose Moreira

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The number of those seeking a kidney donation in the United States continues to increase while the number of donors is not growing at the same rate (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services USDHHS, 2010). The lack of donations is more prevalent in low health literate communities which suffer from misinformation and ultimately negative beliefs toward organ donation. Thus, it is important to understand how marketing efforts can effectively change individuals' beliefs about organ donation.

Drawing on the Self-Determination Theory and Schema Theory, I proposed that the effectiveness of health education programs, which is to motivate individuals to be …

Essays On Corporate Vertical Integration, He Li

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My Dissertation examines the corporate diversification strategy of vertical integration. Vertical integration refers to the organizational structure in which divisions within the firm are integrated along the supply chain. I examine the advantages and disadvantages associated with vertical integration in two chapters.

In Chapter 2, I model how inter-divisional spillover effects mitigate internal capital market (ICM) inefficiencies. The model shows that the spillover effect helps align the objectives of division managers and the objective of the CEO and the firm, and thus facilitates efficient capital allocation at equilibrium. Empirically, I measure the size of the spillover effect by the degree …

An Organizational Attachment Model: Lmx-Social Comparison, Job Embeddedness And Psychological Ownership, Saul R. Valdiviezo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between employees' comparisons of relationship quality with their leader (LMXSC) and attitudinal workplace outcomes. Building on the theoretical principle of LMXSC, I postulate that job embeddedness mediates the relationship between perceived relationship quality and psychological ownership. Additionally, I examine the effects of overall organizational justice to understand how environmental variables impact our attachment model. Our results indicate that LMXSC is an important determinant of psychological ownership and job satisfaction and that job embeddedness mediates these relationships. I examine the proposed model with 471 employees from 37 organizations. The results show partial support for the proposed …