Business Commons^™

Exploring The Antecedents Of Successful E-Business Implementations Through Erp : A Longitudinal Study Of Sap-Based Organisations 1999-2003, Colin Ash

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research was carried out between 1999 and 2003 on the use of e-business applications in ERP-based organisations. A composite research method based on structured case studies was developed for this study. It combined the application of case methods by Carroll et al. (1998], Klein and Myer (1998), and Eisenhardt (1989). This was used to provide a focused, yet flexible structure, as a dynamic approach to case study interpretive research. The research method used three distinct models at three progressive stages of the study, to provide a multi-faceted view of each case. This composite case-based method was developed to maintain …

Determinants Of Internet Banking Adoption In Thailand, Bussakorn Jaruwachirathanakul

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Increasingly competition in the financial services sector is forcing service providers to develop and utilise alternative delivery channels (Daniel, 1999). Within the sector, banking has always been a highly service intensive activity that relies heavily on technology to acquire, process, and deliver services and information to consumers (Tan & Teo, 2000). The emergence of the Internet has provided a way for banks to improve the efficiency of their service delivery and to gain a competitive advantage by reducing the number of brick-and-mortar branches. The study investigated the adoption of lnternet banking services in Thailand and is based on the premise …

A Study Of Destination Attractiveness Through Tourists' Perspectives : A Focus On Chiang Mai, Thailand, Chompunoot Morachat

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study seeks to gain insights into the overall attractiveness of a destination by applying the multi-attribute Fishbein model. This approach has been carried out twice before in the international context and this dissertation contributes further to the concepts of destination attractiveness especially through the application of multi-attribute models of measurement and analysis with the context of localisation. It also adds to the body of knowledge on the understanding of tourism product preference and perceptual attitudes held by tourists from specific geographical origins to the South-East Asian region, specifically within Thailand. The study investigated (i) tourists' perceived overall attractiveness of …

The Service Delivery Process : An Examination Of How Consumers Evaluate Technology-Assisted Service Encounters In The Retail Banking Industry, Catherine W. Munene

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examined consumers' perceptions post-adoption of technology and how these perceptions affect their levels of dis/satisfaction and their continued use of technology·assisted service encounters. To this end, this study investigated the criteria that consumers in Western Australia's retail banking industry are likely to use when evaluating banking transactions involving EFTPOS, ATM, telephone, and Online banking modes. II examined whether these criteria changed with the mode of electronic banking in use and whether the significance of the criteria changed with

consumers' demographic characteristics. In addition, this study explored whether consumers who use these modes of electronic banking experience the paradoxes …

An Examination Of Employees' Understanding And Implementation Of The Information Security Program At Xyz Engineering Center, Dale J. Mancini

Dissertations

Purpose of Study. Due to an increase in global competition and employee dishonesty, the need for information security is on the rise. Consequently the XYZ Engineering Center faces an ever-increasing threat of industrial espionage and information theft. Employees of the Center have been given the product-security policy and have been encouraged to secure confidential information. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the level at which employees at the XYZ Engineering Center understand, value, and practice information security. Additionally, the study also examined employee views on physical safety while at work.

Methodology. The study used analysis of variance and a …

A Comparative Study Of Giving And Volunteering Patterns Among Adults With Seventh-Day Adventist And Other Christian Religious Identities, Karen E. Stockton-Chilson

Dissertations

Problem. In an environment that challenges the non-profit sector, including church-based organizations, to do more with less, it is important to understand the mechanisms that build and sustain two key resources-individual giving and volunteering. Research indicates that there is a great deal of variation in the extent to which individuals provide help. An integrative theoretical model is utilized to examine and compare the giving and volunteering behaviors, socialization, attitudes, reasons, and motivations of adults with Seventh-day Adventist and other Christian religious identities, with secondary consideration given to the effect of potential ethnic variations.

Method. The sample (N = 1359) …

Improving The Programming Language Translation Process Via Static Structure Abstraction And Algorithmic Code Transliteration, Robert W. Chandler

Theses : Honours

Fully automated programming language translation has been described as an unrealistic goal, with previous research being limited by a ceiling of 90% successful code translation. The key issues hindering automatic translation efficacy are the: maintainability of the translated constructs; full utilisation of the target language's features; and amount of manual intervention required to complete the translation process. This study has concentrated on demonstrating improvements to the translation process by introducing the programming-language-independent, Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Computer Assisted Software Engineering (CASE) tools to the legacy-system language migration project. UML and CASE tools may be used to abstract the static …

Implementing A Strategic Alignment Plan, Carlos D. Reyes

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of Changes In Ownership Structure On Audit Quality In An Emerging Stock Market, Fang Zhang

Lingnan Theses

This study uses agency theory to test whether the demand for quality audits by listed Chinese companies is associated with changes in ownership structure, which is characterized by the dominance of the state, institutional and individual shareholders. The empirical test results obtained in a concentrated ownership setting are supportive of agency theory. Specifically, I find that the decrease of state shares and the corresponding increase of institutional shares result in a demand for higher-quality audits in China’s stock market. The results provide empirical support for the government’s recent initiative in reducing state ownership in listed companies to improve firm performance …

Apples, Oranges, And Grapefruit: A Comparative Analysis Of Private Enterprises, Nonprofit Organizations, And Local Government Agencies, James W. Arndt

Masters Theses

The debate between the differences and similarities of public and private sector organizations has been waged over the last half of the century. A majority of these scholarly works target the comparison of large corporations and federal government agencies. Through these comparisons, three different approaches emerge. The generic approach argues that organizational sector differences are moot and this approach promotes a generic form of management. The publicness approach argues differences have become blurred to a point of degrees and that all organizations are public to an extent. The core differences approach argues that the differences between organizational sectors are significant. …

Manager's Role In Recruiting, Motivating And Retaining Employees In Latvia, Anda Peipina

Masters Theses

After regaining independence, Latvia has accomplished a lot in terms of reforms and education in the field of human resource management of public sector. However, there are several serious problems that need to be solved, such as, lack of motivation and recognition of public employees; low pay; problems to attract and retain employees. That is why it was interesting to find out what do employees value when it comes to recruitment, motivation and retention. In addition, what is the manager's role in these processes. Literature represents the American experience in human resource management. McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y as …

Does Television Impact Attendance At Eastern Illinois University Sporting Events, Gregory N. Powers

Masters Theses

This study tested the relationship between Eastern Illinois University home football and basketball games on television and attendance at these events. Attendance during a ten-year period for both EIU football and basketball games was recorded and dates of these contests were researched to determine if the games were telecast. After categorizing the figures into eight groups, the four pairs were compared using a T-test. The study found televising EIU home football games had no significant impact on attendance at these contests. However, a significant difference was noted between EIU home basketball games televised and those not aired. Attendance actually increased …

Identification And Realisation Of The Benefits Of Participating In An Electronic Marketplace : An Interpretive Evaluation Approach, Rosemary Stockdale

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Electronic marketplaces have proliferated as use of the Internet has become widespread in business. A rapid growth in the number of marketplaces, followed by a period of stringent consolidation, as market makers develop a greater understanding of effective business models, has resulted in a climate of uncertainty and confusion. As with many aspects of e-commerce the drive towards participation is fuelled less by strategy planning than by a fear of lagging behind competitors or losing first mover advantage. In this climate of uncertainty organisations often bypass effective evaluation of the benefits that can be realised from participation in e-marketplaces, thereby …

Delayed Discharges From An Adult Intensive Care Unit (Icu), Teresa Williams

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Introduction - Maximising efficient and effective use of resources without compromising quality of care is essential in the current healthcare climate. Intensive care unit services are one of the most resource intensive and therefore expensive services within a hospital. Because intensive care unit services comprise a significant portion of hospital costs and resources, appropriate utilisation of intensive care units is imperative. The occurrence of delayed discharges and the reason for the delays is important as they impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of intensive care unit services. Patients who no longer need intensive care unit care block beds for impending …

Alcohol Restraint Television Advertisements Targeted At Adolescents : A Three-Way Comparison Of Reinforcement Styles On Attitude To The Advertisement, Attitude To The Cause And Attitude To The Act, Neil Robinson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Adolescent binge-drinking is an area of great concern in Australia as it is with many other developed countries around the world. Every year in Australia, Commonwealth and State health authorities invest considerable resources into trying to address this issue and the results have been described as being at best, mixed. Health promotion initiatives such as school programmes, media promotion and health programmes coupled w1th restrictions on supply of alcohol are all used to try and curb the incidence of adolescent binge drinking. In recent years television advertising has specifically been used to try and curb the incidence of adolescent binge-drinking …

Expert Assessments Of E-Commerce In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Theoretical Model Of Infrastructure And Culture For Doing Business Using The Internet, John Chituanya Okoli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In spite of numerous socioeconomic problems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there has been an increasing growth of Internet connectivity, and much business activity has arisen to take advantage of this technology. This dissertation investigates experts’ assessments of the pertinent factors affecting e-business in SSA from the dual perspective of national infrastructure and culture. I review the literature related to e-business in SSA and develop three conceptual models that identify various pertinent factors and hypothesize their interrelationships in determining e-business outcomes. The first model includes all the factors I identify; the second model examines those factors that operate at the national …

Career Counseling For College Students: The Influence Of A Computer-Assisted Career Decision-Making Program On The Stability Of College Major Selection At A Research-Extensive University, Mary D. Feduccia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the influence of Career Discovery I, the first module in a computer-assisted program for career decision-making, on the stability of the choice of college majors. This study sought to determine whether any differences existed in the stability of college majors between students who entered a Research-Extensive University with undeclared majors, used Career Discovery I, and declared a major by the end of the first semester of enrollment and students who entered the same University with declared majors and did not use Career Discovery I during the investigation. In addition, the study …

Design And Evaluation Of A Pdf Print Estimating System, Mengtsung Tai

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This research consisted of designing and evaluating portable document format (PDF) print estimating system to commercial systems. Taking into account functionality, reliability, standardization, and integration, the conventional design method (Pressman, 1997) was used to develop the print estimating system. Considering the printer's viewpoint, added features make the system function online and offline and compatible with all common computer platforms. After the system was developed, experts and entry-level users evaluated the system for software usability (Nielsen, 2000; Shneiderman, 1998). A total of 26 experts and 38 entry-level users responded to 14 questions about usability in a personal interview survey. Statistical analysis …

Cultural Competence Of Faculty Of Baccalaureate Nursing Programs, Lorinda J. Sealey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of cultural competence among faculty teaching in baccalaureate nursing programs in Louisiana and to identify associated factors. A survey was mailed to all 313 faculty members identified as actively involved in teaching in any baccalaureate nursing program in Louisiana and 163 valid responses were obtained. The Cultural Diversity Questionnaire for Nurse Educators, a researcher designed instrument intended to measure cultural competence, was the instrument used. It included Likert-type items organized into five subscales representing the components of cultural competence according to Campinha- Bacote’s model of cultural competence (i.e., cultural awareness, …

An Investigation Of The Factors That Influence Electronic Information Sharing Between State And Local Agencies, Asli Yagmur Akbulut

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the factors that influence local government participation in electronic information sharing with state agencies. Although electronic information sharing has the potential to help government agencies to increase productivity and performance, improve policy-making and provide better public services to the citizens, there is still little information available about the factors that antecede electronic information sharing between local and state agencies. Synthesizing the pertinent literature on interagency information sharing and well-established theories such as diffusion of innovations theory, critical mass theory and social exchange theory, this study proposes that local government participation in electronic information sharing with state agencies …

Identifying Skills Needed By Office Information Systems Graduates In The Changing Work Environment: Perceptions Of Administrative Support Occupations Workers, Margaret Sepulvado Kilcoyne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study sought to identify the skills that need to be taught in an associate degree program for office information systems. Specifically, the researcher sought to determine the importance of skills needed by office information systems/ administration graduates with implications for curricular revision. One hundred and fifty-seven members of the International Association of Administrative Professionals in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and East Texas including the Houston, Texas area participated in this study. Findings indicated that the participants perceived 109 (85%) of the job skill items to be important, very important, or extremely important in the performance of their jobs. …

Two Essays On Corporate Hedging: The Choice Of Instruments And Methods, Pinghsun Huang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines corporate use of derivative instruments and multi-period hedging methods. It studies the use of linear (e.g. futures) and nonlinear (e.g. options) derivatives in a sample of 382 U.S. non-financial firms (920 firm-year observations) between 1992 and 1996. It also measures the performance of stacked hedge techniques with applications to three investment assets (heating oil, light crude oil, and unleaded gasoline) and to three commercial commodities (British Pound, Deutsche Mark, and Swiss Franc). In a stacked hedge, corporations hedge the long-term exposures by repeatedly rolling nearby futures contracts until settlement. Analyzing the 382 firms, I find that both …

A Mediated Hierarchical Regression Analysis Of Factors Related To Research Productivity Of Human Resource Education And Workforce Development Postsecondary Faculty, Heather Anne Williams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study described Human Resource Education and Development Faculty; their research productivity, satisfaction with instructional duties and other related job factors, and opinion of emphasis on research/teaching at their employing institutions; analyzed differences between faculty members’ actual time spent and preferred time spent through the use of t-tests; and determined if selected factors drive research productivity measured as a career research productivity score, a recent research productivity score, and time spent in research through the use of mediated hierarchical regression. The study utilized two NCES data sets derived from the 1992-93 and 1998-99 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty surveys. HRED …

Barriers To Participation In Educational Programs As Perceived By First-Time Enrolling Freshmen In Higher Education, Julie Cason Mcdonald

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Institutions of higher education face exceptional challenges in today’s environment. College costs are increasing, funding is decreasing and/or limited, public confidence is diminishing, the work-place is changing, and a shrinking pool of traditional-age college students exists. This creates an environment where colleges and universities find themselves competing for students. So that these institutions of higher education may better understand how to recruit, advise, and retain students, one must consider the barriers first-time freshmen encounter in the pursuit of formal learning as they enter college. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine the perceived barriers to educational participation held …

Market Timing And Cost Of Capital Of The Firm, Kyojik Song

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Graham and Harvey’s (2001) survey evidence and Baker, Greenwood, and Wurgler (2003) indicate that firm managers try to time debt markets based on term spreads or excess bond returns when choosing the maturity of new debt issues. Whether debt market timing increases firm value via a reduced cost of capital is an empirical question. I examine differences in firm value across non-timers and timers, where timers are defined as firms that follow either a naïve strategy of choosing long-term debt when the term premium is low or a complex strategy from Baker et al. (2003) based on the predictability of …

The Effects Of Employee Service Quality Provision And Customer Personality Traits On Customer Participation, Satisfaction, And Repurchase Intentions, Jeannie Denise John

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research investigates customer-employee interaction during service encounters, and whether the relationships between customer personality traits and quality of the employee’s service delivery will impact the customer’s participation, satisfaction, and repurchase intentions. Consumer personality is differentiated in terms of the self-monitoring (Snyder 1987) and locus of control (Rotter 1966) traits. Service quality provision is manipulated in terms of technical versus functional quality inputs, and whether these inputs are provided in a positive (i.e., good/superior) or negative (i.e., bad/poor) manner. These manipulations yield four combinations of service quality inputs: 1) positive technical and functional quality inputs; 2) positive technical, but negative …

Program Participants' Knowledge And Perceptions Of Effectiveness Of The French Quarter Formosan Termite Program, Alan L. Morgan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine program participants’ knowledge and perceptions of the effectiveness of the French Quarter Formosan Termite Program. The management of the Formosan subterranean termite is critical to the economic well-being of not only Louisiana, but the U.S. Estimates of property damage, repairs, and control measures exceed $1 billion per year in the U.S., of which $500 million is in Louisiana and $300 million is in the New Orleans area. In 1998, the LSU Agricultural Center, a statewide agricultural research and extension campus of Louisiana State University, in cooperation with the Agricultural Research Service, began …

Non-Business Use Of The World Wide Web : A Study Of Selected Western Australian Organisations, Craig Valli

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Employees undertake a wide range of activities when they use the World Wide Web in the work place. Some of these activities may leave the modem Internet connected organisation vulnerable to undue or unknown risk, potential productivity losses and expense us a result of misuse or abuse or the Internet provision. Much of the existing literature on this subject points to a purported epidemic of misuse in the workplace. If this practice is so prevalent and widespread, what can modem Internet connected organisations do to identify the abuse and reduce the risks and losses that these abuses represent? To what …

Voluntary Disclosure Of Segment Information In A Regulated Environment : Australian Evidence, Mui Ching Chan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is an empirical examination of the relationship between six firm characteristics, namely: firm size, industry membership, minority interest, financial leverage, firm diversification, ownership diffusion, and voluntary disclosure of segment information in a regulated environment. This study provides empirical evidence that there are incentives for Australian companies with specific firm characteristics to voluntarily disclose segment information in a regulated setting. The theoretical frameworks employed in this research study are agency theory and contracting theory. Compensation contracts are employed to resolve the potential conflicts of interest between the shareholders and managers giving rise to agency cost of equity. Debt contracts …

An Heuristically Critical Reflective Practititioner Researches The Explication Of Tacit Knowledge In Three Case Studies Investigating A Web-Based Knowledge Management System And In Professional Academic Practice, Edward Sek Wong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In this thesis, I report on a critical and reflective practitioner heuristic inquiry investigating three case studies on the adoption and use of a Web-based knowledge management system. In addition, I investigate the research process itself and my own professional academic practices. Of particular interest is the conversion of group's, individual's, and eventually my own tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, whether in the organisational or personal domains. In this thesis, I seek to explain why the explication of tacit knowledge is important for individuals, organisations, and me, with a potential to motivate efficiency and effectiveness and especially empowerment within an …