Business Commons^™

Analysis Of Pricing And Reserving Risks With Applications In Risk-Based Capital Regulation For Property/Casualty Insurance Companies, Chayanin Kerdpholngarm

Risk Management and Insurance Dissertations

The subject of the study for this dissertation is the relationship between pricing and reserving risks for property-casualty insurance companies. Since the risk characteristics of insurers differ based on their structure, objectives and incentives, segmenting the insurers into subgroups would allow for a better understanding of group-specific risks. Based on this approach to analyzing insurer financial risks, we find that, in a given accident year, the pricing and reserving errors are positively correlated, especially in long-tailed lines of business. Large insurers, stock insurers, and multi-state insurers, in general, exhibit a strong correlation between accident-year price and reserve errors. However, only …

Improving Practices In A Small Software Firm: An Ambidextrous Perspective, Nannette Napier

Computer Information Systems Dissertations

Despite documented best practices and specialized tools, software organizations struggle to deliver quality software that is on time, within budget, and meets customer requirements. Managers seeking improved software project outcomes face two dominant software paradigms which differ in their emphasis on upfront planning, customer collaboration, and product documentation: plan-driven and agile. Rather than promoting one approach over the other, this research advocates improving software management practices by developing the organization’s ambidextrous capability. Ambidextrous organizations have the ability to simultaneously succeed at two seemingly contradictory capabilities (e.g. discipline and agility) which leads to enhanced organizational performance. Overall, this study asks the …

Escalation Of Commitment In Information Technology Projects: A Goal Setting Theory Perspective, Vijay Kasi

Computer Information Systems Dissertations

ABSTRACT ESCALATION OF COMMITMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS: A GOAL SETTING THEORY PERSPECTIVE BY VIJAY KASI Aug 30, 2007 Committee Chair: Dr. Mark Keil Major Academic Unit: Center for Process Innovation Information technology (IT) projects are prone to failure. One explanation for the high failure rate among IT projects is that managers overly commit to a failing course of action, a phenomenon referred as escalation of commitment. While the notion of goals and commitment are central to the phenomenon of escalation, very few prior studies have investigated their impact on escalation. In this study, a research model rooted in goal …

Bad News Reporting On Troubled It Projects: The Role Of Personal, Situational, And Organizational Factors, Chongwoo Park

Computer Information Systems Dissertations

An individual’s bad news reporting behavior has been studied from a number of perspectives and has resulted in a variety of research streams including the MUM effect (or reluctance to transmit bad news), whistle-blowing, and organizational silence. While many scholars in different areas have studied reporting behavior, it has not been widely discussed in the information systems literature. This dissertation research addresses an individual’s bad news reporting behavior (and its antecedents) in the troubled IT project context. Many social phenomena are multi-causal (Hollander 1971). The silence phenomenon involved in an individual’s bad news reporting behavior is multi-causal too. While prior …

Financial Integration And Scope Efficiency: Post Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Yuan Yuan

Risk Management and Insurance Dissertations

The enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 promised the most fundamental reform to be made in U.S. financial services regulation in more than half a century. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) removed barriers that forced separation between commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies; and it allowed subsidiaries of banks or insurance companies to engage in a broad range of financial activities that were not permitted for banks or insurers themselves. Few doubted the potential for GLB to have a profound impact on financial service providers and on the financial market. However, there is a striking lack of empirical research …

A Contextualist Approach To Telehealth Innovations, Sunyoung Cho

Computer Information Systems Dissertations

A Contextualist Approach to Telehealth Innovations By Sunyoung Cho Abstract Healthcare is considered one of the most important social issues in the U.S. as well as in other societies with ever-increasing costs of medical service provision. The information-intensive nature of the healthcare industry and the perception of information technology (IT) as a way to ease up healthcare costs and improve quality have lead to increased use of and experiments with IT-based innovations. These activities present interesting research opportunities for IS researchers and they have led to an increasing body of knowledge on healthcare information systems. This research aims at contributing …

The Effects Of Merger And Acquisition On The Price Of Insurance And Firm Performance In The U.S. Property-Liability Insurance Industry, Jeung Bo Shim

Risk Management and Insurance Dissertations

Although the economic motivation and efficiency effects of mergers and acquisitions (M & As) in the insurance industry have been discussed, none of the prior studies have addressed the relationship between M & A activity and insurance price change. In addition, little is known about the effect of diversification on the differences in insurance price across lines. The main objective of the dissertation is to provide evidence on these issues. A secondary objective is to investigate the relationship between M & A activity and insurer’s efficiency and financial performance. We also examine various firm characteristics that affect insurance price differences …

Model Uncertainty And Mutual Fund Investing, Yee Cheng Loon

Finance Dissertations

Yee Cheng Loon’s dissertation abstract Model uncertainty exists in the mutual fund literature. Researchers employ a variety of models to estimate risk-adjusted return, suggesting a lack of consensus as to which model is correct. Model uncertainty makes it difficult to draw clear inference about mutual fund performance persistence. We explicitly account for model uncertainty by using Bayesian model averaging techniques to estimate a fund’s risk-adjusted return. Our approach produces the Bayesian model averaged (BMA) alpha, which is a weighted combination of alphas from individual models. Using BMA alphas, we find evidence of performance persistence in a large sample of US …

Salesperson Behavioral Determinants Of Customer Equity Drivers: Mediational Role Of Trust, Ramana K. Madupalli

Marketing Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of different types of salesperson behaviors on building and managing customer equity drivers. It is proposed that customers develop positive attitudes towards different value drivers through developed trust by different salesperson behaviors. Specifically, it is hypothesized that customer trust effects customers’ perceptions of brand value, product value and relationship value; the customer trust in turn is affected by different salesperson behaviors, namely, adaptive selling, customer oriented, selling oriented and un/ethical behaviors. Thus, this dissertation integrates selling behaviors literature with customer equity literature. This dissertation builds on past literature and proposes a conceptual model using nine …

Determinants Of Brand Sensitivity In Organizational Buying Contexts, Brian Paul Brown

Marketing Dissertations

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing practitioners are increasingly relying on branding strategies though academic researchers have been slow to study branding in organizational contexts. By integrating existing conceptual models and research findings, this study examines the noteworthy differences between the B2B and the consumer market contexts and the implications of those differences on the formulation of B2B brand strategies. We introduce a conceptual model that suggests the conditions that are likely to increase or decrease organizations’ propensity to select branded products versus lesser-known or generic products when selecting suppliers, otherwise referred to as brand sensitivity. The proposed model is grounded in risk …

Generating User-Centric Dynamic And Adaptable Knowledge Models For World Wide Web, Li Lei

Computer Information Systems Dissertations

GENERATING USER-CENTRIC DYNAMIC AND ADAPTABLE KNOWLEDGE MODELS FOR WORLD WIDE WEB By LEI LI JUNE, 2007 Committee Chair: Dr. Vijay Vaishnavi Major Department: Computer Information Systems In the current Internet age, more and more people, organizations, and businesses access the web to share and search for information. A web-based resource is often organized and presented based on its knowledge models (categorization structures). The static and inflexible knowledge models of web-based resources have become a major challenge for web users to successfully use and understand the information on the web. In this dissertation, I propose a research approach to generate user-centric …

Structure And Process Of Channel Program Selections: Retailers Choice Among Parity Trade Promotions, Amit Poddar

Marketing Dissertations

This research tried to explain the role of calculative commitment, loyalty commitment and power asymmetry on behavioral commitment in a business to business scenario. We specifically looked at the trade promotion scenario since retailers face more trade promotions than they can accept and extant research suggests that retailers always choose trade promotions that offer the greatest immediate benefit. This dissertation addressed the following managerial question, “How does a firm select a program (trade deal) when all its vendors offer the same short term economic incentives”. We proposed that other aspects of retailer’s relationship with its vendors determine / influence the …

Online Product Information Load: Impact On Maximizers And Satisficers Within A Choice Context, Jill Renee Mosteller

Marketing Dissertations

Information load at various thresholds has been asserted to cause a decline in decision quality across several domains, including marketing (Eppler and Mengis 2004). The influence of each information load dimension may vary by study and context (Malhotra 1982; Lurie 2002; Lee and Lee 2004). Given the explosion of information available on the internet, attracting an estimated 144 million U.S. users (Burns 2006a), this experimental research examined how three dimensions of online product information load influenced consumers’ perceived cognitive effort. To the researcher’s knowledge, online product breadth, depth, and density have not been empirically tested together, in a multi-page within …

Future Orientation, Chronological Age And Product Attributes Preference, Yujie Wei

Marketing Dissertations

This dissertation examines what motivates individuals to prefer certain types of product attributes over others. It is proposed that consumer preference regarding product attributes is fundamentally connected to an individual’s future orientation, i.e., how a person perceives, thinks about, and copes with time left in life. Specifically, it is posited that future orientations play key roles in shaping a person’s criteria in product evaluation. Thus, this dissertation seeks to integrate the study of future orientation with research on socio-emotional selectivity influences on consumption. Building on past research, this study proposes a conceptual model including four constructs: future orientations, chronological age, …

The Differing Effects Of Satisfaction, Trust, And Commitment On Buyer's Behavioral Loyalty: A Study Into The Buyer-Salesperson And Buyer-Selling Firm Relationship In A Business-To-Business Context, Brian Rutherford

Marketing Dissertations

This study is one of the first studies to fully address the relationship that business-to-business buyers have with both the selling firm and salesperson within an integrated model. Finding from this survey research support 14 of the 26 original hypotheses and the 2 additional linkages using structural equation modeling. This study finds that the relationship customers have with the selling firm is a stronger predictor of continuance than the relationship that the buyer has with the salesperson. While this relationship is stronger between the buyer and the selling firm, findings suggest that the salesperson can have a direct negative impact …

Individual-Technology Fit: Matching Individual Characteristics And Features Of Biometric Interface Technologies With Performance, Adriane Randolph

Computer Information Systems Dissertations

Abstract INDIVIDUAL-TECHNOLOGY FIT: MATCHING INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FEATURES OF BIOMETRIC INTERFACE TECHNOLOGIES WITH PERFORMANCE By ADRIANE B. RANDOLPH MAY 2007 Committee Chair: Dr. Melody Moore Jackson Major Department: Computer Information Systems The term biometric literally means “to measure the body”, and has recently been associated with physiological measures commonly used for personal verification and security applications. In this work, biometric describes physiological measures that may be used for non-muscularly controlled computer applications, such as brain-computer interfaces. Biometric interface technology is generally targeted for users with severe motor disabilities which may last long-term due to illness or injury or short-term due …

Cross-Sectional Differences Between Topic 1: Money Market Mutual Funds And Their Role In The Mutual Fund Families. Topic 2: Innovations In Financial Products. Conventional Mutual Funds Versus Exchange Traded Funds., Anna Agapova

Finance Dissertations

The first essay examines cross-sectional differences between money market mutual funds (MMMFs), in the context of the sponsoring fund family. While extant studies have shown that fund family characteristics impact the management of open-end equity mutual funds, results of this study’s analysis find that fund family characteristics also affect the management of MMMF assets, contributing to differences in the maturity of the fund’s holdings, expenses, and realized returns. I find that an MMMF is not simply a transitional account with a short-term low-risk investment objective, but rather, a critical role player within the fund family. Differences in maturity, yield, and …

Impact Of Transformational Leadership On System Exploration In The Mandatory Organizational Context, Xixi Li, J.J. Po-An Hsieh

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

Organizational investments in such complex information systems as customer relationship management (CRM) systems have reached a record high. Unfortunately, underutilization of these sophisticated technologies hinders organizations from realizing the promised returns on investment. This study tackles this issue from the perspective of intention to explore, which refers to individual intentions to explore the technology and seek new ways of using it. Drawing upon insights from concepts of exploration, extra-role behavior, technology acceptance, and transformational leadership, this paper proposes a research model for employees’ intention to explore in mandatory organizational contexts, with special emphasis on the effect of transformational leadership. The …

Explaining Employees Extended Use Of Complex Information Systems, J.J. Po-An Hsieh, Wei Wang

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

Investments in complex information systems by organizations reached a record high of U.S.$26.7 billion in 2004. Yet, organizations seldom use these systems to the fullest extent and attain the expected return on investment. This paper addresses the issue of system underutilization by investigating Extended Use, which refers to using more system features to support one's tasks. Extended Use was examined in the nomological networks of the IS Continuance (ISC) Model and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A field survey was conducted in a large manufacturing firm that had successfully implemented a popular enterprise resource planning solution for more than 2 years. …

Specifying Formative Constructs In Information Systems Research, Stacie Petter, Detmar W. Straub, Arun Rai

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

While researchers go to great lengths to justify and prove theoretical links between constructs, the relationship between measurement items and constructs is often ignored. By default, the relationship between construct and item is assumed to be reflective, meaning that the measurement items are a reflection of the construct. Many times, though, the nature of the construct is not reflective, but rather formative. Formative constructs occur when the items describe and define the construct rather than vice versa.

In this research, we examine whether formative constructs are indeed being mistaken for reflective constructs by information systems researchers. By examining complete volumes …

China's Equity Markets: Recent Reforms Encourage Domestic Investors, Penelope B. Prime, Yanping Shi

International Business Faculty Publications

On 27 February 2007, Chinese equity markets fell almost 9%. Hours later other global markets plunged far and fast, including those in Europe and the U.S. Such a link between China’s equity markets and others was unprecedented. Analysis conducted in the aftermath confirmed that capital flows between China and other markets are highly controlled, and therefore were not the main cause of changing stock prices. Subsequent volatility in the Chinese markets has not spilled over to other markets. Nonetheless, global investors are now watching China’s markets closely.

The purpose of this article is to provide background on the development of …