Business Commons^™

Fairness In Chinese Organizations, Kai-Guang Liang

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the roles of organizational justice and individual cultural characteristics in affecting employees' work attitudes and behaviors, in particular, the contextual aspect of job performance in Chinese organizations. Data were collected from 232 employee-supervisor dyads in three Sino-western joint ventures in the People's Republic of China. Results indicated that distributive justice had a significant impact on one dimension of contextual job performance, i.e., interpersonal facilitation, and various attitudinal outcomes, such as job satisfaction, pay satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intention. Among the three procedural justice variables (participation at company level, participation at job level, and appeal mechanism) examined, …

Spillover Effects On Latin American Equity Markets: The Case Of Adrs And Non-Adr Firms, Roberto Jairo Curci-Berrio

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The development of the American Depositary Receipt (ADR) market allows investors desiring to diversify in Latin America to follow three diversification strategies. First, they may invest in Latin American firms traded through ADRs in the U.S. equity market. Second, they may invest in the underlying stocks of Latin American ADRs traded in Latin American stock exchanges. Third, investors may invest in Latin American firms not cross-listed; hereafter called non-ADR firms, and traded in Latin American stock exchanges. This dissertation contributes to the current literature by investigating whether U.S. and Latin American investors improve portfolio performance by investing in ADR or …

Porting The Sisal Functional Language To Distributed-Memory Multiprocessors, Jui-Yuan Ku

Dissertations

Parallel computing is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in recent years. The sizes of application problems continuously increase for solving real-world problems. Distributed-memory multiprocessors have been regarded as a viable architecture of scalable and economical design for building large scale parallel machines. While these parallel machines can provide computational capabilities, programming such large-scale machines is often very difficult due to many practical issues including parallelization, data distribution, workload distribution, and remote memory latency.

This thesis proposes to solve the programmability and performance issues of distributed-memory machines using the Sisal functional language. The programs written in Sisal will be automatically parallelized, scheduled and …

Automatic Document Classification And Extraction System (Adoces), Xuhong Li

Dissertations

Document processing is a critical element of office automation. Document image processing begins from the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) phase with complex processing for document classification and extraction. Document classification is a process that classifies an incoming document into a particular predefined document type. Document extraction is a process that extracts information pertinent to the users from the content of a document and assigns the information as the values of the “logical structure” of the document type. Therefore, after document classification and extraction, a paper document will be represented in its digital form instead of its original image file format, …

A New-Generation Class Of Parallel Architectures And Their Performance Evaluation, Qian Wang

Dissertations

The development of computers with hundreds or thousands of processors and capability for very high performance is absolutely essential for many computation problems, such as weather modeling, fluid dynamics, and aerodynamics. Several interconnection networks have been proposed for parallel computers. Nevertheless, the majority of them are plagued by rather poor topological properties that result in large memory latencies for DSM (Distributed Shared-Memory) computers. On the other hand, scalable networks with very good topological properties are often impossible to build because of their prohibitively high VLSI (e.g., wiring) complexity. Such a network is the generalized hypercube (GH). The GH supports full-connectivity …

Partnership Competency Framework: A Report On The Skills And Competencies Required For Effective Labor-Management Partnerships, Jean Joines Strasser

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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A Study Of Customer Satisfaction With Products And Services Offered By The Bernhard Center, Heidi L. Haskins, Dana Hasselback, Kimberly Heffel, Dean Seales, Amanda Wartchow

Honors Theses

The purpose of this report was to conduct research for the Bernhard Center. The objective was to determine student and faculty/staff perceptions of the Bernhard Center. It also served to facilitate possible suggestions for ways to renovate or replace existing areas with facilities that better serve the population of Western Michigan University. The Bernhard Center is a popular place on campus for WMU students, faculty, and staff, as well as community members to eat, study, hold meetings and events, and socialize. In an effort to maintain or increase the appeal of the Bernhard Center among these groups, while at the …

Cost-Benefit Analysis And Estimation Of User Fees For The Atakumosa Local Government Village Drinking Water Supply Project, Southwest Nigeria, Olajide Mohamed Damilola

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Labor Unions On Regional Economic Development In Mexico, Rafael Otero

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this research is to help determine the net effect of trade unionism in Northern Mexico (Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Juárez, and Tijuana). The maquiladora industry is used to empirically test union regional economic effects because there are different union structures along the regions where maquiladora firms are located. The results of the investigation regarding the relative changes in wages in the maquiladora and non-maquiladora sectors for the four cities in the study are consistent with the hypothesis that the real wage growth in a region's maquiladora sector relative to the non-maquiladora sector is associated with the strength of …

New Business Initiatives And Financial Performance, Douglass Cagwin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship o f improvement in financial performance with use o f new business initiatives such as JIT, TQM, and ABC. The investigation is organized into three areas o f inquiry that telescope from the general to the specific to reach a conclusion regarding the efficacy of initiatives. The first two studies contain regression analyses o f the association between the use of the initiatives and change in industry mean-adjusted ROI. The third study develops and test a comprehensive structural model that incorporates factors postulated by previous researchers to affect the efficacy of ABC. Data are obtained …

Factors Influencing Student-Athlete Choice Of Institution, Edward G. Howat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influenced prospective student-athletes to attend East Tennessee State University. Using a qualitative research design, interviews were conducted with 36 freshman scholarship student-athletes. Participants represented student-athletes from each sport. A literature review covered the history of intercollegiate athletics, the history of recruiting student-athletes, the process of recruiting student-athletes, and the decline of public perception towards intercollegiate athletics. Results from the interviews were analyzed using inductive analysis. Patterns, themes, and categories of analysis emerged from the data. The data from the interviews were then unitized and categorized. The categorized units were …

Silent Messages In Negotiation: A Descriptive Study Of Negotiators' Perceptions Of The Role Of Nonverbal Communication In Multi-National Business Negotiations, Yun Chu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study specifically explored the perceived importance of the following nonverbal factors in the negotiation process: proxemics (location and negotiation site), physical arrangement (seating and furniture arrangement), and kinesics (eye contact, facial expressions and gestures). The findings show that the negotiators' perception about the three categories and their role in negotiation are consistent with nonverbal communication theory.

The Study Of Third Party Reimbursement And Its Effect On The Responsibilities And Salaries Of Certified Athletic Training In The Clinical Setting, Les Fuller

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

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Children's Attitudes Toward Television Advertising: A State Of The Art Review, Heidi L. Haskins

Honors Theses

The issue of children and advertising came to light in the 1970s and has continued to be a topic of much discussion ever since. In started in the 1970s when the Action for Children's Television petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to eliminate all commercials from children's TV programs. Then in January 1973, the major networks agreed to reduce commercial time in children's weekend programs from 16 minutes an hour to 12 minutes an hour. In 1991, the Better Business Bureau estimated that children in the U.S. watch an average of 3.5 hours of television every day, and the average …

The Effects Of A Combination Of Feedback, Goals, And Consequences On The Performance Of Four Small Businesses, Timothy V. Nolan

Dissertations

Performance measurement approaches such as the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) offer a format for attending to a few performance metrics rather than several different performance indicators. While the BSC approach offers a nice format for tracking performance, it does not provide a conceptual framework for improving performance. That framework can be found in Behavioral Systems Analysis. The Total Performance System emphasizes the importance of internal and external feedback in improving performance. Several studies have investigated feedback interventions in organizational settings. The intervention found to be most effective is a combination of feedback, goals, and consequences. The purpose of the current study …

The Field Study Of A Training Transfer Enhancement Process And Its Effect On Transfer Of Training, Andrew W. Bowne

Dissertations

Transfer of training is defined as the degree to which trainees apply, in their jobs, the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they gained in training. Research regarding transfer of training has called training effectiveness into question. For example, Baldwin and Ford (1988) reported average transfer rates typically in the 10% range.

The study tested the effectiveness of particular procedures and tools intended to enhance transfer of training. These transfer enhancing tools were employed by an experimental group of trainees’ supervisors (who received training from the researcher in the application of the tools) before a half-day problem-solving training workshop for their employees …

Relationships Between Leader Characteristics, Planned Change And Organizational Culture In A Dynamic Manufacturing Environment, Matthew Chodkowski

Dissertations

The new economic era has been marked by profound global change. In response, researchers and practitioners have called for a rethinking of the conventional concepts of leadership, change, and organizational culture to improve our competitiveness in this turbulent world market. This study investigated the relationships between leader style, leader behavior, leadership paradigm, leader knowledge of change, organizational culture potency, and planned change efficacy in a manufacturing company implementing a high performance work system change initiative. This study intended to contribute to the reconceptualization of the leadership construct and the explication of the leadership-culture-change linkage.

Six hundred and eighty-nine subjects representing …

The Effects Of Ethnicity, Ethnic Salience And Ethnic Identification On Consumers' Sources Of Information And Purchase Behavior, Patricia Wooten Humphrey

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any significant differences in the search and purchase behavior between white and black consumers due to ethnicity, ethnic identification, ethnic salience and ethnic situation.

The sample was chosen from two universities, one predominately white, the other predominately black. Of the 360 questionnaires administered, 345 were usable. The sample was representative of the student population of each university with respect to age, gender, and ethnicity. Statistical techniques used were ANOVAs, t-tests and paired comparisons.

The findings indicate that ethnicity plays an important role in an individual's sources of information used …

Optimum Advertising Pulsation Strategies: A Dynamic Programming Approach, Hongkai Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

This study, using the dynamic programming approach, has addressed the problem of optimally allocating a fixed advertising budget of a monopolistic firm over a planning horizon comprised of n equal periods to maximize two popular measures of advertising performance: (1) profits related to the advertising effort (discount factor r = 0), and (2) present value of profits related to the advertising effort (discount factor r > 0).

Two dynamic programming models that use the modified Vidale-Wolfe model to represent sales response to advertising are formulated with respect to whether the time value of money is considered. For a planning horizon comprised …

Psychological Influencers Of A Consumer's Innovative Propensity: A Cross-Cultural Examination, Angela D' Auria Stanton

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The purpose of this effort was to focus on measuring the psychological characteristics (specifically perceived risk, dogmatism, fatalism, self esteem, empathy, and cognitive complexity) of the innovative consumer. In order to assess the various relationships and interrelationships that exist in the psychological determinants of innovativeness, a structural modeling approach was employed. The model was also tested in a two country setting in order to determine its robustness cross-culturally. The innovative behavior measure focused on a single domain, the Internet, since innovativeness does not typically overlap across product categories (e.g. Gatignon and Robertson 1985).

Overall, the results of the test of …

Competitive Interaction: The Influence Of Strategic Group Structure, Sherry M. Burlingame

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The assertion that competitive interaction is a central focus of business strategy emerged from the Strategic Management Research Group (SMRG) at the University of Maryland. The premise of this perspective is that competition among firms can be modeled using communication theory to explain how firms in an industry interact. Competition, in this framework, is represented as the series of actions and counteractions, termed responses, that firms undertake to position themselves in their industry. Thus, in this model, interaction (actions and responses) equates with competition. Studies conducted by the members of the SMRG have outlined the relationship of key variables within …

Organizational Change Theory And The Factors For Sustaining Change: A Case Study Of Three Public Sector Organizations Winners Of The Virginia Award For Continuing Excellence, Mary Redd-Clay

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors associated with organizational change and with sustaining change in public sector organizations recognized for their change efforts as recipients of the Virginia Award for Continuing Excellence.

This was a case study of three public sector organizations, located in and around urban settings in the state of Virginia. They include Air Combat Command located in Hampton; Hanover County Public Schools located outside Richmond; and Norfolk Naval Shipyard located in Portsmouth. Each of these organizations is notable as winners of the Virginia Senate Productivity and Quality Award for both the Medallion and …

An Empirical Investigation Into Significant Factors Of Moral Reasoning And Their Influences On Ethical Judgment And Intentions, Janet K. Mullen Marta

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation is a partial test of the Hunt-Vitell (1986, 1993) general theory of marketing ethics, which, along with previous tests of the model and other empirical and theoretical work, serves as the basis for this research. The dissertation model is the most comprehensive test of Hunt-Vitell to date, in the sense that it tests variables at almost every stage of the ethical decision making process described in the Hunt-Vitell theory.

The sample was obtained through a mail survey of American Marketing Association (AMA) practitioner members. Empirical testing was carried out through correlation and regression analysis. Of the seventeen hypotheses, …

The Long-Term Performance Of Initial Public Offerings (Ipos): Venture Capitalists, Reputation Of Investment Bankers, And Corporate Structure, Halit Gonenc

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) literature has uncovered the underpricing, hot issue markets, and long-term underperformance anomalies. The long-term underperformance of IPO firms has gained the focus of recent academic attention. Recent studies document that venture capitalists, and the reputation of investment bankers are associated with the long-term performance of firms going public. The lack of venture capitalists has been shown to relate with the long-term underperformance of IPO firms. On the other hand, IPO firms underwritten by less reputable underwriters have been found to experience more negative long-term market adjusted returns. Unlike previous studies, this study examines the interactive …

The Application Of Role Theory To The Sexual Harassment Paradigm: A Policy Capturing Approach, Lora L. Jacobi

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This research utilized policy capturing techniques to analyze the different factors individuals use when determining sexual harassment. The importance of level of power, verbal behavior, and invasiveness of touch were examined. Additionally, role theory was applied to the sexual harassment paradigm in order to understand how context factors within an organization affect the perception of sexual harassment. Profile analysis was used to determine how the perception of what constitutes harassing behavior is mitigated by one's role in the organization.

Participants were one hundred and five males and one hundred and fifteen females who were either currently employed or employed within …

Exploring The Management Of Outsourcing And The Determination Of Civil Engineering Minimum Manning Numbers In Order To Optimize Air Force Benefits, David J. Anason

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the relationship between peacetime and wartime tasks for Air Force Civil Engineering career fields in regard to outsourcing. Relevant literature in civilian sector outsourcing techniques is then studied to determine how they decide on what to outsource and what to keep insourced. Peacetime tasks performed by individual career fields are correlated with the wartime tasks to determine if there is any valuable wartime training gained from the completion of peacetime work orders. Several interviews completed with Air Force Civil Engineer readiness experts to evaluate an importance factor for each career field wartime mission. This importance factor and …

Acquisition Logistics Guidelines For Improving The Argentine Air Force Weapon System Acquisition Process, Guillermo A. Piuzzi

Theses and Dissertations

Increasing costs, complexity and demanded endurance have been typical characteristics of new weapon systems during the last decades. Meanwhile, severe contraction of defense budgets makes cost effective and well-planned acquisition crucial to ensure weapon system whole life supportability. This qualitative research explores the role of acquisition logistics in the endeavor of purchasing effective, efficient, and supportable systems in four countries, namely the United States, Australia, Spain, and Portugal. Through a multiple case study, a set of concepts is extracted and adapted to be proposed as the basis of a prospective Argentine Air Force weapon system acquisition process review. Suggested improvements …

A Methodology To Apply Business Process Reengineering Within The Brazilian Aeronautical Ministry, Ricardo F. G. Santos

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine Business Process Reengineering as a feasible methodology to be used to help reorganize the Brazilian Aeronautical Ministry. Using a qualitative approach, this research developed an analysis of BPR beginning with the concepts elaborated by Hammer and Champy. The research also investigated the laws and regulations used by the United States Government to apply BPR in all branches of its military. After establishing the framework, some methodologies and case studies were analyzed to obtain the big picture about the application of BPR as a managerial tool to reorganize organizations. The results of this …

Design And Implementation Of A Cost Control System For Cuban Shipping Companies, Santiago Alvarez Rodriguez

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Organisational Culture : Values, Commitments And Teamwork : The Naviera Cubana Caribeña Shipping Company Case Study, Jesus Brito Bartumeu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.