Business Commons^™

How Management Level And Environmental Dynamism Are Related To Change Behavior And Unit Performance, Eric C. T. E. Larsen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A survey study was conducted to determine how management level and environmental dynamism affect change leadership by managers and its impact on work unit performance. An on-line survey was used to obtain data from subordinates of the managers in many different organizations. The results showed that change-oriented behavior was used more by high level managers than by low level managers, and when the environment was dynamic rather than relatively stable. Management level enhanced the effects of a manager's change behavior on unit performance, and the enhancing effect of dynamism was marginally significant. The results are consistent with theories about the …

Assessing Interventions For Reducing Gender-Based Occupational Stereotypes : A Multi-Method Study Comparing The Implicit Association Test To Indirect And Explicit Measures Of Stereotypes, And An Examination Of Sex Roles And Entity Versus Incremental Lay Theories Of Social Perception, Carolyn C. Matheus

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Certain occupations are often stereotyped as feminine (e.g., elementary school teacher) while others are stereotyped as masculine (e.g., engineer) (White, Kruczek, Brown, & White, 1989; White & White, 2006). This study proposed using multiple methods to assess stereotypical judgments about the masculinity and femininity of five occupations: engineer, law enforcement officer, accountant, fashion designer, and elementary school teacher. Implicit, indirect, and explicit assessments were used to measure gender based stereotypes of occupations to examine similarities or differences between the different methods. Implicit assessments involve measuring automatic evaluations to stimuli, while indirect assessments involve gender ratings of attributes associated with occupations. …

Power In The Corporate Boardroom : Development Of Board Power And Ceo Power Indexes, David Gavin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study focused on the development of two new measures: one of board of director power and one of CEO power. The first goal was to develop a new measure of board power. While there have been many studies on the individual elements of board power, the empirical results have been inconsistent and mixed. The underlying position of this paper is that no single element adequately explains the relationship between board power and outcome variables such as firm financial performance. In this study, the new board power measure was composed of multiple elements and an index was created.

Bankruptcy As A Corporate Strategy : Implications For Turnover In The Top Management Team And Board Of Directors, Cynthia Lane Krom

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This paper examines Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a corporate strategy, segregating filings for corporate reorganization in the U.S. from 1998 through 2007 into those due to financial distress (FDB) and those believed to be for risk-management purposes (RMB). Twenty-seven RMB and 199 FDB firms were compared to each other, and to 226 matched non-bankrupt firms. Altman's Z-score clearly differed between the RMB and FDB firms, suggesting that the two are separate constructs financially as well as legally. A subset of 81 firms (the 27 RMB matched to 27 non-bankrupt and 27 FDB) were studied for turnover among the members of …

Organizational Ambidexterity And Synergistic Effects Of Plural Organizational Forms : A Search For Balance Between Standardization And Innovation, Jaeyoung Kang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation was motivated to answer the following questions: (1) Why are the plural organizational forms (company-owned units and franchised units) used in a chain, what is the effect of the plural organizational form on chain performance, and what factors influence the optimal combination of the plural organizational forms? Drawing on the organizational ambidexterity theory, I argue the plural organizational forms enable chains to maintain standardization across multiple units and facilitate innovation for the adaptation to changing environment simultaneously. Thus, the plural organizational forms can contribute to chain performance by reconciling and harnessing these conflicting demands. I suggest that there …

A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis Identifying Antecedents Of Work Ethic Beliefs And The Relationship Between Work Ethic Beliefs And In-Role And Extra-Role Work Behavior : New Work Ethic Dimensions And Scale Introduced, Melissa Janine Mann

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study developed a comprehensive instrument for assessing contemporary work ethic and used the instrument to investigate antecedents of the formation of work ethic beliefs. In addition, the study investigated whether work ethic beliefs correlated with in-role and extra-role job performance. The study reviewed the literature on work ethic beginning with Weber's (1904-05) construal of the Protestant Work Ethic as the underpinning of early capitalism. The review traced the evolution of the Protestant Work Ethic construct to its contemporary, secular formulations. At issue is whether the dimensions of work ethic identified by Weber 100 years ago remain relevant for understanding …

Consumer Responses In Sales To Multiple Media Advertising Exposures : The Impact Of Synergy Based On A Study Of Project Apollo Single Source Data, Leslie Wood

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The primary focus of this dissertation is to answer the question: how does exposure to advertising affect purchasing behavior, and in particular, how does synergy resulting from exposure to advertising in multiple media influence purchasing behavior? This is a critical piece of information in the business decision process of media planning. It determines which media to include in a media plan and how to allocate a limited budget across media in order to optimize the return on investment from advertising. This question has been studied in many ways since it has been a central question for the advertising industry for …

Investigating Workplace Attitudes And Perceptions Of Hard Of Hearing Employees, Thomas Brent Davis

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

No abstract provided.

Tiered Market Structures: An Empirical Examination Of Nasdaq, Kevin D. Broom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays examining tiered market structures. We focus on the June 2006 restructuring of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange where the listing environment changed from two to three tiers, creating a top tier with the highest listing standards for any exchange in the world. The first essay examines market quality. Theoretical motivation indicates that different listing and disclosure requirements could result in different levels of information production across tiers, and thus different market quality characteristics. While we do find cross-sectional evidence of market quality differences, we do not find evidence of market quality changes when firms change …

The Economic Impact Of The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act Of 2005, Randall B. Bunker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The economic impact of the gulf opportunity zone act of 2005 politicians utilize tax policy investment incentives to foster economic growth and stimulate investment. On December 21, 2005, president bush signed the gulf opportunity zone act of 2005, otherwise known as the go zone act. The go zone act provided tax incentives to stimulate economic growth and assist in the recovery and rebuilding efforts. This research evaluates the economic impact of tax policy investment incentives provided by the go zone act of 2005. Congress continues to use tax incentives to stimulate economic growth even though empirical research on the impact …

The Accounting Profession Goes To War: Accounting Contributions To World War Ii, Mark Ernest Jobe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

the World War II era ushered in a period of dynamic upheaval in American society. To safely navigate the stormy seas of commerce and governance, men of integrity, ability, and leadership were essential. Time and again, the nation turned to accountants to chart the proper course. And the accounting profession responded to the war and all its concomitant demands in a most splendid fashion. While the accounting profession was actively engaged in promoting the war effort, the war was exerting its own influences by shaping the duties, demands, and prestige of the accounting profession. The profession responded to the war …

The Role Of Public Relations In Integrated Marketing Communications, Claire Healy

Theses

This study is concerned with analysing the integration of public relations and marketing practices currently being undertaken by various organisations in Ireland. The concept of integrated marketing communication has been debated in the literature and in organisations for many decades.

This study employs both primary and secondary research methods on gathering findings that focus on the increasingly fundamental role of public relations in marketing initiatives, and highlights the areas where conflict and tension exist. These conflicting areas are having a negative effect on organisations maximising from this integration.

This research gathered both public relations and marketing perceptions on how the …

A Study Of How Social Media Is Being Integrated Into The Irish Pr Industry And The Effects Of This On The Profession., Denise Haran

Theses

This thesis explores the effects that social media is having on the Public Relations (PR) profession in Ireland it also looks at the characteristics of PR 2.0. In this it aims to look at particular aspects of the industry to see how they are being affected by social media including monitoring, reputation management, communication models and traditional media usage as well as looking at which social media platforms are used. The study will also look at PR professionals opinions on social media in Ireland.

A qualitative research design was chosen for this study and the primary method of data collection …

The Role And Significance Placed On Corporate Social Responsibility In The Hotel Industry In The South West Region Of Ireland., Shirley Millar

Theses

This research sets out to examine the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility in the context of the hotel industry, with a specific focus on Ireland and the South West Region. The study looked at the level of importance placed on CSR by both the hotel consumer and the hotel industry. The study also sought to determine the relevance of CSR as a source of competitive advantage

Interest in the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly prominent in recent years. There has been a shift in practice from companies doing good to be seen to be doing good, …

The Application Of Viral Marketing To The Irish Film Industry, Stephen O'Mahony

Theses

The research examines the concept of viral marketing and in particular, its application to the Irish film industry. It explores the merits of viral marketing as a promotional technique for Irish film and the associated online social media channels through which viral messages are disseminated. Further to this, the study identifies the extent to which viral marketing and online social media have been adopted by Irish consumers and enterprise. Given that viral marketing is still in its relative infancy, the research also takes a conceptual approach so that it contributes to the continued understanding of the practice in general.

A …

Eliciting User Requirements Using Appreciative Inquiry, Carol Kernitzki Gonzales

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Many software development projects fail because they do not meet the needs of users, are over-budget, and abandoned. To address this problem, the user requirements elicitation process was modified based on principles of Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry, commonly used in organizational development, aims to build organizations, processes, or systems based on success stories using a hopeful vision for an ideal future. Spanning five studies, Appreciative Inquiry was evaluated for its effectiveness with eliciting user requirements. In the first two cases, it was compared with traditional approaches with end-users and proxy-users. The third study was a quasi-experiment comparing the use of …

Essays On Corporate Governance, Tih Koon Tan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed by two essays that explore corporate governance issues in S&P firms. The first essay examines changes in corporate governance after a firm gets added to the S&P 500 index? Using firms added from 1994 to 2007, this paper examines how governance mechanisms change for these firms. Specifically, I look at both the overall governance and details on how each mechanism changes. I find that governance improves after being added to the index. Controlling for firm size, leverage, prior firm performance, and growth opportunities, the market reacts positively to governance improvements as a whole. In addition, changes …

Two Essays On Bidding In Multi-Unit Common Value Auctions, Minjie Shao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays on the topic of bidding in multi-unit common value auction. Essay one examines the role of capacity constraint on the auction results and bidding behavior. We consider a general case where bidders are unconstrained, and a second setting where bidders are capacity constrained. We document downward sloping demand curves for individual bidders. Bidders shade their bids by submitting quantity-price pairs and spreading their bids. The winner's curse is strong in the unconstrained treatment, but we find no evidence of the winner's curse when bidding constraints are imposed. Unconstrained bidders shade bids significantly more and …

Two Essays On Product Design And Consumer Evaluations, Sangwon Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is about the central role of product design on consumer evaluations. While the design literature has articulated two different types of design, i.e. form-based design and function-based design (Khalid 2004), most extant marketing literature has mostly focused on the impact of functional design on performance (see Chitturi, Raghunathan, and Mahajan (2007) for a notable exception). In this paper, I examine the individual and joint effects of the two design dimensions: form design and functional design on consumer evaluations of new products. In the first essay, employing theoretical underpinnings from processing fluency theory, I investigate four major research questions. …

Airline Bankruptcy: The Determining Factors Leading To An Airline's Decline, Jason Tolkin

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine what the critical factors are to an airline’s financial turmoil, leading ultimately to a bankruptcy filing. Over the past decade, the airline industries’ performance has been dismal, leading to 20 bankruptcy filings. As competition increases, it is crucial for airlines to know which core business areas are essential to success. This paper identifies 8 specific industry metrics that are used to compare airlines, revealing where certain airlines falter and others shine. Some of these metrics are later applied to a case study examining Trans World Airlines (TWA) and American Airlines (AA), highlighting …

The Correlation Between Financial Fraud And Economic Downturn, Karen Alyse Hyink

Theses

Throughout the 20th century, researchers studied financial fraud in order to better understand the factors, motives and environments that increase the occurrences of fraud. By studying these historical trends, modern governmental agencies and public organizations are able to more effectively detect and prevent financial fraud.

Economic climate directly influences the occurrence of fraud; specifically, it is during periods of economic downturn when organizations are more vulnerable to fraudulent attacks. While it has always been assumed that recessionary periods lead to an increase in fraudulent activities, the direct correlation between the two has been greatly understudied by researchers. This thesis is …

Cultural Diversity In The Hotel Industry: A Study Of Performance Management Systems, Deirdre O'Donovan

Theses

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the numbers of people immigrating to Ireland, making Irish society much more culturally diverse than in previous decades. At present, there are approximately 420,000 migrants living in Ireland, of whom approximately 350,000 individuals are of an age to work (Central Statistics Office 2006). Consequently, Irish workforces are now more culturally diverse.

This thesis focuses on the implications of cultural diversity on performance management practices in a number of Irish hotels. Due to the large number of culturally diverse employees in the hospitality industry, the hotel sector was chosen as the focus of …

Evaluating The Target Pipeline In A Pharmaceutical Acquisition, Daniel Vass

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Many firms in the pharmaceutical industry turn to acquisitions when faced with gaps in their drug development pipelines and patent expirations as an alternative to making long-term investments in internal research and development. Investors are generally negative on this strategy, and upon the announcement of a pharmaceutical acquisition the stock of the acquiring firm often drops. This decline in share price creates an opportunity for the investor who can identify the characteristics of a target firm that increase the probability that the transaction will ultimately be a success, as measured by the subsequent appreciation in the acquirer's stock. It is …

Determinants Of Implied Volatility Movements In Individual Equity Options, Christopher G. Angelo

Finance and Real Estate Dissertations - Archive

In this study, I introduce a parsimonious model that explains implied volatility time series for individual stock options. The current state of risk management for individual equity options still seems to lack the presence of pertinent exogenous variables. This study suggests a few easily observable variables that can be used to explain the changes in implied volatilities of stock options. These variables can be used in the risk models in order to more accurately manage option positions for individual stocks. The first chapter provides a motivation for the VIX as the primary explanatory variable for changes in implied volatility. It …

An Analysis Of Reasonableness Models For Research Assessments, William D. Kight

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Individuals who screen research grant applications often select candidates on the basis of a few key parameters; success or failure can be reduced to a series of peer-reviewed Likert scores on as little as four criteria: risk, relevance, return, and reasonableness. Despite the vital impact these assessments have upon the sponsors, researchers, and society in general as a benefactor of the research, there is little empirical research into the peer-review process. The purpose of this study was to investigate how reviewers evaluate reasonableness and how the process can be modeled in a decision support system. The research questions both address …

Adapting Disneyland’S Service Strategy To Korea’S Everland Theme Park, Haesun Paik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Disneyland is an American amusement park located in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company. On July 18, 1955 the park was first opened to the public (Absolute Astronomy, 2009). Tourists come from all over the world to experience Disneyland not only for theme park, but also for its well-known quality of service, proven time and again by returning visitors. Behind the Disney World being the first, Disneyland is the second most visited park in the world having more than 14,800,000 visitors (TEA and ERA, 2008). Korea is one of the fastest growing countries in Asia and …

School Gardens: Effects On Low Socioeconomic First Grade Students, Margo Lynn Castro

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine if there are any effects of school gardens on low socio-economic first grade classroom located in the Southern Region of the United States. It is crucial for students to understand food sources and where it originates. Data was gathered through interviews using qualitative research methods. Analysis consisted of examining data from themes and discriminate cases. Personal interviews were done with teachers and students involved in the garden project. Permission was received to interview the students at school. All participants will remain anonymous. The results of the study found that the garden project …

Critical Factors In Project Success: A Study Of Public Sector Construction Projects In Malaysia., Wan Maimun Wan Abdullah

Student Works (2010-2019)

The importance of the construction industry to nation building necessitates that project implemented achieves project success. However, studies and evidence have shown that there is a low probability in consistently achieving project success. Nevertheless, it seems that the definition of project success and how to achieve project success is quite illusive. For more than a century, researchers have been grappling with its definition but the concept remained ambiguous. From the early identification of time, cost and quality as elements of project success, researchers have added many other outcomes and objectives including stakeholders, project manager, communication, leadership, project management, organization structure, …

The Application Of Social Marketing In Increasing Blood Donation Among Donors And Non Donors: The Case Of Third Level Students., John Healy

Theses

In today’s society, blood donation is dependent on the goodwill of people to voluntarily donate blood without financial reward. There is a continuous need for new blood donors, because the demand for donor blood is increasing, whereas the supply of blood is declining. Three thousand blood donations are needed in Ireland every week. Maintaining an adequate supply is the biggest challenge. Only 3.6% of the population in the Republic of Ireland donate blood. This leaves an enormous potential blood donor base, which if tapped into and maintained could lead to an adequate reserve of donations to meet the transfusion needs …

The Study Of Antecedents Of Customer Loyalty Towards Established Mobile Service Providers In Malaysia., Nicole Yap Chen Yan

Student Works (2010-2019)

Despite the high churn rates, the Malaysian telecommunications industry is growing. However, the lack of customer focus in this market has yielded one of the worst customer loyalty levels. The competitiveness of the domestic market has been further intensified with the implementation of mobile network portability (MNP), which has further complicated the issue of customer loyalty, as research has shown that better deals and low switching costs means that satisfied consumers never mind changing service provider. This shows that satisfaction no longer ensures loyalty (Grabowich & Guy, 2007). The purpose of this research is to identify the major antecedents that …