Business Commons^™

Factors That Enhance Consumer Trust In Human-Computer Interaction: An Examination Of Interface Factors And Moderating Influences, Eun-Ju Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

The Internet coupled with agent technology presents a unique setting to examine consumer trust. Since the Internet is a relatively new, technically complex environment where human-computer interaction (HCI) is the basic communication modality, there is greater perception of risk facing consumers and hence a greater need for trust. In this dissertation, the notion of consumer trust was revisited and conceptually redefined adopting an integrative perspective. A critical test of trust theory revealed its cognitive (i.e., competence, information credibility), affective (i.e., benevolence), and intentional (i.e., trusting intention) constructs. The theoretical relationships among these trust constructs were confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis …

The Effect Of An Introductory Computer Course On Online Instruction Self-Efficacy Of Undergraduate Students, Iryna P. Loboda

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an introductory computer course on online instruction self-efficacy and significance of demographic variables of gender, age, formal computer training, computer experience, online instruction experience, and Internet experience in relation to online instruction selfefficacy.

This was accomplished by assessing online instruction self-efficacy beliefs of undergraduate students of the College of Human Ecology, the University of Tennessee who were enrolled in an introductory computer course in spring and summer 2002. The population sample included 92 students who completed the Tennessee Online Instruction Scale (TOIS) at the beginning and at the end …

Pb1735-How Many Businesses Can A County Support, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Marketing, Finances and Value-Added Agriculture

This publication presents the results of a survey conducted with management personnel of grocery stores. The survey (see Appendix) was developed to obtain information needed to evaluate how receptive local grocers are to carrying value-added products produced in Tennessee and to identify the primary steps/procedures/conditions that value-added agri-entrepreneurs should consider to best target local grocers. The entire grocery store survey project was accomplished through the cooperative efforts of several teams of contributing partners.

Facilitators And Impediments In Moving Firms Toward Supply Chain Management: A Qualitative Field Study, Dewayne Lee Searcy

Doctoral Dissertations

Competing at the supply chain level, instead of at the individual firm level, is widely recognized today as a potential source of competitive advantage (Christopher 1992, Spekman et al. 2001). To compete on a supply chain level implies firms within a supply chain must develop and enhance internal, as well as, external competencies.

Intuitively, firms must have some degree of internal integration before they can reap significant benefits from engaging in supply chain management (SCM). As firms become more efficient and effective coordinating their internal processes and operations they soon realize significant improvements are possible by coordinating and linking their …

Intelligent Data Mining Using Kernel Functions And Information Criteria, Zhenqiu Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines (SVM) are two powerful kernel related intelligent data mining techniques. The current major problems with these methods are over-fitting and the existence of too many free parameters. The way to select the parameters can directly affect the generalization performance(test error) of theses models. Current practice in how to choose the model parameters is an art, rather than a science in this research area. Often, some parameters are predetermined, or randomly chosen. Other parameters are selected through repeated experiments that are time consuming, costly, and computationally very intensive. In this dissertation, …

Pb1711 Direct Marketing Guide For Producers Of Fruits, Vegetables And Other Specialty Products, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Financial Management

Direct farmer-to-consumer marketing includes any method by which farmers sell their products directly to consumers. Justification for establishing a direct farmer-to-consumer marketing outlet is based primarily on the producers’ desire to increase the financial returns from farm production by (1) reducing marketing costs (and capture profits) attributed to intermediaries (middlemen) in the supply chain, and (2) capitalizing on the desire of consumers to buy (and willingness to perhaps pay a premium for) riper, fresher, higherquality fruits and vegetables. However, if growers expect to receive prices similar to those at retail outlets, they must provide the same value of services consumers …

Pb1719-How To Get Your Value-Added Products Into Local Grocery Stores, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Marketing, Finances and Value-Added Agriculture

Marketing is one of the most important factors determining the success of any fruit or vegetable farming enterprise, encompassing all of the operations and decisions made by producers. These decisions range from identifying the most profitable crops for production to deciding how produce should be delivered to buyers efficiently and economically while maintaining product quality. Contrary to popular belief, marketing does not begin after a crop is produced. Instead, marketing alternatives need to be considered well before production takes place.

Fiber Splitting Of Bicomponet Melt Blown Microfiber Nonwovens By Chemical And Water Treatment, Hua Song

Masters Theses

The melt blowning process is unique because it is used almost exclusively to produce microfibers rather than fibers the size of normal textile fibers. With bicomponent meltblown bicomponent fabrics, PLA/PP and PLA/PTT, an alkaline treatment was applied to the fabrics, causing the dissolvable part (PLA) removed from the bicomponent fibers.

Alternatively, water treatment is preferred compared to alkaline treatment. Water dispersive Eastman AQ polymers were introduced to melt blown processing for the first time. After the water dispersive AQ polymer was determined to be able to be processed into a nonwoven fabric using the melt blowing processing line, the feasibility …

A Study Of Nonwoven Composites, Shaker Gaddam

Masters Theses

Preliminary work on nonwoven composites at The University of Tennessee showed that spunbond/meltblown (SM) and spunbond/meltblown/spunbond (SMS) nonwoven composites containing side-by-side (S/S) bicomponent PP/PE fiber meltblown webs had lower flexural rigidity than 100%PP SB webs and that the SM composites had discernibly softer hand than did the composites made from 100% PP in the meltblown component.

This study further optimizes the production and processing parameters of the SM and SMS laminates containing MB webs with different ratios of the bicomponent polymer pairs PP and PE. The resultant laminates were tested for barrier performance, tensile strength, hydrostatic head (HH), air permeability …

Are Markets Rational? Investors’ Response To Persistent Bias In Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts, Seung-Woog Kwag

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation intends to address the following two issues: 1) Persistence of the bias in analysts' earnings forecasts; 2) Investors’ response to such bias. It extends the understanding of information economics in earnings studies, and is expected to improve asset pricing models, suggest better model specifications for earnings studies, provide regulatory policy implications, and facilitate discussions on investor rationality.

Using two look-back portfolio formation methods that capture salient features of analysts' past forecasting behavior, I form quintile portfolios that describe the range of analysts' forecasting behavior. The optimistic portfolios refer to the portfolios containing firm-quarters whose contemporaneous forecast errors are …

Theeffects Of Decision Aid Recommendations On Users’ Cognitive Processes, Memories, And Judgments, Forrest Douglas Roberts

Masters Theses

This study extends the existing decision aid literature by examining the influence of decision aid recommendations on users’ memories, decision processes, and judgments. Existing research suggests that decision aids can be beneficial in a variety of settings. Judgments or decisions, the outputs of the decision- making process, are the focus of most of the decision aid research. This study offers a more comprehensive investigation of the impact of decision aids by examining both the outputs of the decision-making process and the inputs and processes that lead to judgment and decision-making. An experiment is conducted that examines the influence of decision …

Quality Of Life And Civic Involvement In Three Urban Knoxville Neighborhoods, Drew Thurman

Masters Theses

This thesis, contributes to the methodology and operationalization for measurement of neighborhood quality of life. Three neighborhoods in Knoxville, TN were surveyed via a mail-in questionnaire in order to analyze residents cognitive perceptions of life quality. Descriptive statistics related to Quality of Life and Civic Engagement were calculated and a regression model with a neighborhood quality of life dependent variable was estimated. It was concluded that affluence was closely related to life quality and civic participation. Furthermore, two distressed federally designated Empowerment Zone neighborhoods displayed differing levels of attachment to their community and perceptions of their life quality. Race was …

The Estee Lauder Companies Background And History, Ashley Brooke Howerton

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Pb1646 Talking About Money And Setting Money Goals, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Financial Management

Good money management by family units helps to avoid several headaches. Yet, there are many challenges that may sometimes make good money management seem impossible.

Many young people like to wear costly designer clothing and spend lots of money on items such as CD players and CDs. However, as a parent, when your money supply is limited and you spend money on expensive designer wear for your child or children, you often have no money left for important household and other personal needs.

Sometimes, you may feel that you have to buy designer clothing for your child. However, if you …