2024-03-29T06:10:53Zhttps://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/oai/requestoai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/102202020-09-15T14:29:42Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Xu, Yang
2012-10-27T10:50:14Z
2012-10-27T10:50:14Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12349
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10220
Recent high-profile financial scandals and increasing instances of restatements focus public attention on the role of audit committees, auditors and CFOs in maintaining the integrity and quality of corporate financial reporting. The U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in July 2002, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. (Nasdaq) changed their listing requirements in 2004 to encourage more effective corporate governance in order to protect the integrity of the financial reporting system. The purpose of my dissertation is to examine monitoring of financial reporting by corporate directors. My dissertation, entitled "Three Essay on Monitoring of Financial Reporting by Corporate Directors" examines how boards strengthen corporate governance through the formation of audit committees, the choice of external auditors, and the hiring of new CFOs. Study one proposes and tests two models explaining what factors affect the existence of designated audit committees and the extent of audit committee financial expertise at IPOs. Study two investigates factors impacting IPO firms' choice of an industry expert audit. Study three examines whether restatement companies experiencing chief financial officer (CFO) turnover hire new CFOs with more financial expertise.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Accounting
Audit committee
Corporate governance
Financial expertise
Industry specialist auditor
THREE ESSAYS ON MONITORING OF FINANCIAL REPORTING BY CORPORATE DIRECTORS
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/40572020-07-16T14:11:04Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Rantala, Hilla
2008-08-05T12:29:31Z
2008-08-05T12:29:31Z
2008-04-30
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:2544
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4057
The two essays in this dissertation are concerned with investors' decision making in the global environment. Finance literature has established that investors do not allocate their investments in mean variance efficient portfolios. Instead, variables such as economic development and familiarity impact the portfolio allocation at home and abroad. In my first essay, I investigate determinants of foreign diversification by more than thirty thousand institutions worldwide. Survey-based country-specific variables on cross-cultural behavior help to explain both home bias and diversification among foreign equities. In particular, investment funds from countries characterized by higher uncertainty avoidance behavior display greater home bias and are less diversified in their foreign holdings. Investors from countries with higher levels of individualism and masculinity display lower levels of home bias and are more diversified abroad. In my second essay, I examine 3,487 non-US institutions' portfolio allocations in US securities. International funds from geographically distant countries invest less in the US and in a narrower set of securities than institutions from geographically nearby countries. However the significance from geographical distance reduces, when I control for the time zone differential between the investor country and the US. This shows that information flow at least partially explains the familiarity based explanation of international diversification. I also show that cultural uncertainty avoidance impacts portfolio allocation, so that funds from countries with high uncertainty avoidance tend to underweight the US market, but overweight a small set of US benchmark portfolios with the amount they invest in the US.
EN
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business administration
Finance
Essays in International Finance
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/99952020-07-07T19:38:55Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Wang, Qian
2012-07-22T18:31:32Z
2012-07-22T18:31:32Z
2009-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10491
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/9995
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5756-4400
Segment information is vital, essential, fundamental, indispensable, and integral in the process of projecting companies' performance (AIMR, 1993). The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the causes and consequences of segment information disclosed in compliance with a controversial provision of SFAS No. 131, Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information (FASB 1997). Contributing to mandatory disclosure and segment disclosure literature, this dissertation consists of three studies, exploring the management motives to disclose or withhold segment information, and the impact of segment disclosure quality on analyst information environment and market beliefs.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Accounting
Fas 131
Segment disclosure
Three Essays on Segment Reporting
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/102412020-09-10T13:10:59Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Zhang, Zelin
2012-10-27T11:51:48Z
2012-10-27T11:51:48Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12287
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10241
Increasingly, sellers are offering goods characterized by probabilistic quality. In such offers, buyers receive a synthetic product comprising of a lottery between two vertically differentiated goods. Given this emerging practice, I formally investigate the design and pricing of probabilistic quality. In this dissertation, I ask: How does probabilistic selling improve seller profits in vertical markets? When probabilistic quality is optimal, how is it designed; in particular, how are the associated probability, pricing, and product set determined? Further, what is the impact of transaction costs on the design of probabilistic quality? Next, what is the impact of probabilistic selling on consumer surplus? Finally, will probabilistic quality arise under demand uncertainty? My analysis reveals that probabilistic quality can enhance seller profits via three distinct routes: profitably disposing excess capacity, better targeting of the high-quality product, and greater market coverage. In addition, transaction costs can play a critical role on the emergence and manner of emergence of probabilistic quality. Next, I find that probabilistic quality can potentially enhance consumer surplus even though its implementation necessitates a dissipative transaction cost. Finally, I find that probabilistic quality is robust to considerations of demand uncertainty.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business
Marketing
Contracting costs
Pricing
Probabilistic
Design and Pricing of Probabilistic Quality
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/80092020-08-14T14:02:00Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Banerjee, Pronobesh
2011-09-20T01:26:45Z
2011-09-20T01:26:45Z
2011-07-14
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11668
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/8009
Instead of using all information, consumers often use only the one that is most readily accessible for arriving at a decision. This is known as knowledge accessibility in decision making. This dissertation examines the role of two situational factors, the self and the temporal construal, on the accessibility of brand associations, i.e. the knowledge that consumers store about a brand, on brand extension evaluation, brand categorization and the redounding effects of extension failure and success. Essay 1 shows that by increasing the match between the extension type (prototype or exemplar) and audience characteristic (independent versus interdependent self-construal), a firm can bolster its extension's success. In a series of studies, it became apparent that people with independent and interdependent self-construals respond differently to the type of brand extension as well as information about an extension's success or failure. Independent evaluates a prototype-based extension more favorably than interdependents; the reverse is true for an exemplar-based extension. When they consider negative information about extension failure, independents evaluate the parent brand significantly more unfavorable than the control group. For interdependents though, the negative impact is limited to the most accessible exemplar only (not the parent brand). Similar results emerge for brand enhancement with positive information about an extension's success. These results are consistent with the different accessibility of prototype and exemplar brand associations across different forms of self-construals. Essay 2 shows that the accessibility of brand associations changes with temporal construal of an individual. Exemplars of a brand, e.g. products associated with a brand, are more readily accessible to individuals with near temporal construal, while prototypes, e.g. beliefs associated with a brand, are more readily accessible to individuals with distant temporal construal. A series of studies showed that the different accessibility of exemplar and prototype associations across temporal construal influence brand categorization, i.e. grouping of two or more brands into a category and brand extension evaluation. Moreover, individuals in different temporal construal also invoke different evaluative processes for evaluating an extension, which is determined by the differential accessibility of the brand associations across different temporal construals.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Marketing
Social psychology
Brand association accessibility
Brand categorization
Brand extension evaluation
Redounding effects
Self-construal
Temporal-construal
Impact of self and temporal construal on brand categorization and extension evaluation
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/103052020-09-17T13:12:45Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Rao, Sunita
2012-10-28T16:48:54Z
2012-10-28T16:48:54Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12398
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10305
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5800-8537
This dissertation is on assured sustainability reporting. It has three parts that are titled as follows: Part 1. Planning Assurance Services for Sustainability Reporting: An Analysis of Cost versus Assurance in Audit Evidence, Part 2. The Development of Worldwide Assured Sustainability reporting, and, Part 3. Assurance on Sustainability Reports: A Study of Factors Influencing the Selection of an Assurance Framework. Of the above, Part 1 is complete and ready for submission to a journal and Part 2 has been accepted for publication in Australian Accounting Review. Part 1 investigates providing assurance on sustainability reporting and demonstrates how an evidential reasoning framework can enhance providing such a service. It develops a framework based on the Dempster-Shafer theory of belief functions for the purpose of audit program planning and cost analysis. A sensitivity analysis is used to demonstrate the value of the model based on seven scenarios. The cost to perform an audit procedure is assumed to increase exponentially with the increase in the targeted level of assurance and audit procedures are assumed to exhibit inherent limitations as to the maximum level of assurance they can be expected to provide. Results demonstrate as follows: i. the importance of the assurance provider selecting audit procedures that directly relate to the highest level assertions, ii. the effects of discovering during the audit that certain audit tests are less diagnostic than anticipated, iii. the effects of obtaining mixed audit evidence, iv. the effects of obtaining strong evidence that implies that certain assertions are not fairly stated and v. the effects of planning to provide different levels of assurance across assertions Each of these findings demonstrates the value of utilizing a formal evidential reasoning and cost minimization approach in providing assurance on sustainability reports. Part 2 investigates the development of assured sustainability reports (SRs) during this century's first decade. More specifically, it presents basic descriptive data on a sample of 148 SRs published in 2006 and 2007 and contrasts this sample with the sample discussed in Mock, Strohm, and Swartz (MSS 2007). The prior study examined a sample of 130 assured SRs issued between 2002 and 2004. Both samples provide information about the nature of sustainability reports, allowing us to investigate important questions such as which countries and industries are more likely to have an assurance statement, what levels of assurance are provided, and what factors affect the level of assurance provided. In addition to providing descriptive data relative to the above questions, we run logistic regressions where the dependent variable is whether a Big4 firm provided the assurance, for both periods being considered. Some important differences are observed related to whether the assurance provided applies to both the quantitative and qualitative assertions made in the report (significantly negatively associated with Big4 in the 2002-2004 period, but not significant in 2006-2007), whether the report uses symbols to identify assured statements (significantly positively associated with Big4 in the 2002- 2004 period, but not significant in 2006-2007), and whether the procedures used are disclosed (not significant in 2002-2004, but significantly positively associated with Big4 in 2006-2007). Part 3 examines the factors that influence the assurance provider in the selection of an assurance framework for the purpose of assuring sustainability reports where assurance is voluntarily sought by the organization issuing the sustainability report. These frameworks are not generally accepted and no authority mandates these frameworks. Audit-firm specific, client-company specific and country level factors are considered as explanatory variables. Multi-level modeling is used for analysis since companies are nested within countries. Analysis suggests that the following country levels factors have significant impact on the selection of the type of assurance frameworks (i.e. international frameworks or regional frameworks): level of disclosure, market capitalization and the level of carbon dioxide emissions. Further, analysis suggests that two client company characteristics also have a significant impact: whether a company has foreign operations, and, the level of growth opportunities. One of the important ways of adding credibility to sustainability reports published by companies is obtaining assurance on them (Simnett, Vanstraelen and Chua 2009). Hence, the type of assurance framework used (International versus Regional) may indicate assurance provider preferences. Use of international frameworks (ISAE3000 and AA1000AS) may indicate a trend towards standardization of assurance frameworks and ease of comparison. On the other hand, use of regional assurance frameworks may indicate a possible country-of-origin effect. Factors that influence the selection of assurance frameworks and the type of assurance framework selected are important because it offers insights into trends and opportunities that shape the growing assurance market in the sustainability area. This could aid companies, assurance providers, standard setting bodies and investors respond to a changing environment in a meaningful way.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Accounting
Assurance
Sustainability reporting
Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Investigation of Assurance Process, Assurance Characteristics and Assurance Frameworks Used
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/80082020-08-14T14:09:32Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Martynov, Aleksey
2011-09-20T01:24:14Z
2011-09-20T01:24:14Z
2011-07-07
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11659
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/8008
The optimal choice of a decision-making structure in alliances and other combined ventures is an important yet underexplored question. There is no single theory that predicts what types of decision-making structures will be optimal in different alliances. Existing research, while offering insights into the factors influencing the choice of a decision-making structure, does not offer a unified framework of such a choice or the performance implications of various choices. The present dissertation is an attempt to fill this void. The first essay is a conceptual examination of the various factors that may affect the optimal choice of a decision-making structure. I build a general model and outline gaps in the existing research. The second essay considers the implication of interdependence between the collaborating firms and the internal complexity of the firms for the optimal choice of a decision-making structure. I build a simulation model that shows how asymmetric interdependence and significant internal complexity of the partners can reduce the need to centralize decision making in alliances and other combined ventures. The third essay is a study of individual costs and benefits that each partner in an alliance enjoys or bears as a result of collaboration under interdependence. I use computer simulations to show that the size and sign of the individual performance benefits depends on the chosen decision-making structure and the pattern of interdependence between the collaborating firms. The significance of this dissertation lies in the examination of factors unrelated to opportunism as antecedents of an optimal choice of a decision-making structure, which is part of a wider concept of governance mode choice. The findings in this dissertation contribute to the theory of the firm and to the theory of strategic alliances.
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Management
Alliances
Complexity
Decision-making structures
Governance mode
Interdependence
THREE ESSAYS ON THE CHOICE OF DECISION-MAKING STRUCTURES IN ALLIANCES AND OTHER COMBINED VENTURES AND THE PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS OF SUCH CHOICE AT THE DYADIC AND FIRM LEVELS
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/98472020-07-13T14:20:32Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Liu, Yucong
2012-06-03T17:19:28Z
2012-06-03T17:19:28Z
2012-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12063
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/9847
Information Technology (IT) business value research is suggested as fundamental to the contribution of the IS discipline. The IS research community has accumulated a critical mass of IT business value studies, but only limited or mixed results have been found on the direct relationship between IT and firm performance. Extant studies mostly focus on whether IT creates business value and demonstrate indirect relationships between IT and some aspects of firm value; however, the question of why and how IT can do so remains understudied. These limitations lead to the challenge where existing IT business value studies have not done enough on providing feasible, practical guidance for IT practitioners and have had lacking relevance to the business world. In this study I propose the concept of dynamic IT capability (DIC), defined as the ability of a firm to build, integrate, and upgrade IT resources to improve, enhance, and reengineer business processes as responses to rapidly changing environments, and apply it in network environments. Using data of 26 companies over a span of 8 years from a number of secondary sources, I examined the direct link between DIC and firm performance and the indirect link through the mediation of firm innovation, both moderated by network structures. The results of data analysis indicate that DIC is an important indicator of IT business value in network environments. DIC contributes to firm performance directly or indirectly through firm innovation. Also, DIC complements network structures to positively influence firm performance. These findings have important implications for both researchers and practitioners.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Information technology
Business
Management
Dynamic it capability
Firm innovation
Firm performance
It business value
Network structure
BUSINESS VALUE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN NETWORK ENVIRONMENTS
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/43682020-07-22T13:42:25Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Aguirre Urreta, Miguel Ignacio
2009-02-02T06:56:47Z
2009-02-02T06:56:47Z
2008-01-01
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10023
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4368
Computer Self-Efficacy has been shown to be a critical construct in a number of research areas within the Information Systems literature, most notably training, technology adoption, and performance in computer-related tasks. Attention has been focused on its antecedents, approaches to manipulation, issues of measurement, and its relationship to other important variables such as computer anxiety and personal goals. On the other hand, its relationship to performance on a task that is supported by technology, but has extensive domain content, has not been yet established; nor how that relationship varies as the level of computer support differs for alternative tasks. This proposal develops a model of computer-supported task performance and positions computer self-efficacy as a moderator in the relationship between task self-efficacy and performance, with these effects mediated by more specific perceptions of capability. A continuum of computer support is also developed, with a conceptualization of its implications for this relationship.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business administration
Computer self-efficacy
Dss
Information systems
Social cognitive theory
Task performance
AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE MODERATING RELATIONSHIP OF COMPUTER SELF-EFFICACY ON PERFORMANCE IN A COMPUTER-SUPPORTED TASK
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/311492021-01-16T09:00:57Zcom_1808_60com_1808_1260col_1808_14152col_1808_1951
Middleton, Kenneth A.
2021-01-15T19:00:14Z
2021-01-15T19:00:14Z
1940-08-31
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/31149
The plan of organization for this study is to set forth, for each major division, the background or special external developments and general business conditions affecting manufacturing enterprises in Lawrence, and then to give detailed attention to the individual enterprises themselves. Whenever available information permits, an analysis is made of the underlying factors which influenced the original establishment of each concern, the development of the concern, and, in the event that it did not survive, its ultimate abandonment. In the final chapter the major influences brought to bear on the history of manufacturing industry in Lawrence are summarized.
openAccess
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Lawrence, Kansas
Manufacturing in Lawrence, Kansas, 1854-1900
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/53652020-07-23T15:14:48Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Ji, Yong Yeon
2009-08-07T14:33:33Z
2009-08-07T14:33:33Z
2009-06-08
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10385
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5365
The main research question of this dissertation was derived from a few common sense perceptions most people have about health. The question that we address is how to define organizational health and how it relates to firm performance. As the recent economic crisis caused by the failure of financial markets indicates, an unbalanced or biased view of organizational health may have detrimental effects on overall organizational sustainability. This dissertation focuses on the role of human resources (HR) in promoting organizational health. I propose three positive effects of human resource management (HRM) on firm performance in the context of organizational turnarounds. First, the inoculating effect addresses whether HR is a significant factor in determining organizational survival or failure. Second, the mitigating effect addresses the extent to which HR can help "soften" organizational decline. Finally, the restoring effect addresses the extent to which HR plays a role in helping organizations recover from organizational decline. The HR-related information was mostly derived from 10-K annual reports and the Compustat database through content analysis. Two independent coders were selected and trained to achieve inter-coder reliability in order to accurately assess the strength of the statements on the HR index items. This allowed me to estimate firms' relative "Emphasis on HR". The relationship between Emphasis on HR and the prediction of firm performance was analyzed through hierarchical OLS/logistic regression, quantile regression, and structural equation modeling (SEM). I found that the results generally support the inoculating effect, mitigating effect, and restoring effect. The results showed that firms with higher Emphasis on HR are more likely to a) be classified as non-declining b) perform better than other peers in the same industry, c) experience less probability of bankruptcy, d) experience a shorter declining period, and e) recover from a downturn stage even during their declining period. These findings imply that there is a positive relationship between Emphasis on HR and (1) the avoidance of organizational decline and (2) firm performance of the firms that are in a declining stage. Although HR has been neglected in the turnaround process, the results of this research offer a new way to see HR's role: a supporting actor in the drama of organizational turnarounds rather than a supernumerary.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business administration
Management
Content analysis
Role of hr
Turnaround
Uncovering the Role of Human Resource Management in Organizational Turnarounds: Supernumerary or Supporting Actor?
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/67672020-08-03T15:50:03Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Moser, Shane
2010-10-03T04:46:20Z
2010-10-03T04:46:20Z
2010-07-08
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11032
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6767
The first two essays in this dissertation examine the phenomenon of venture capital syndication, or co-investment. In the first essay, I construct measures of syndicate heterogeneity and find that when venture capital firms from different geographic regions syndicate their investments, this has a strong positive impact on the company receiving the financing. However, I find no equivalent positive impact from heterogeneity in terms of organizational structure of the venture capital firms. My results are robust to selection effects and are consistent with the notion that syndicate partners add value through their access to different business networks. In the second essay, I find that syndication is positively associated with both the investment amount and the information asymmetries between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist(s). I also find that syndication is more prevalent in Boston, California, and the Pacific Northwest. After controlling for these factors, I still find that syndication rates cycle and argue that current elevated syndication rates are a symptom of overinvestment by the venture capital community. In the third essay, I find that a firm's traded corporate bonds partially anticipate its stock price movements by one to three months. A decline of 10% over three months of a firm's bonds is associated with an ensuing cumulative stock-price decline of 3% to 6%. The effect is non-linear, with bond price declines signaling lower future stock prices, but bond price increases having no effect. Possible explanations include the focus of bond analysts on negative results, the use of credit-default swaps as venues for informed trading (including insider trading), and the influence of noise traders on equity prices.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business administration
Economics
Finance
Corporate bond market
Market efficiency
Syndicate heterogeneity
Venture capital syndication
Essays on Venture Capital Syndication and the Informational Efficiency of the Corporate Bond Market
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/42452020-07-16T14:25:53Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
McClelland, Patrick Lyn
2008-09-29T05:44:00Z
2008-09-29T05:44:00Z
2008-05-21
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:2576
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4245
The issue of pay equity within publicly-traded companies has been a question of growing interest in recent years. Academics, policy-makers, and members of the popular press and general public have become increasingly focused on the extent to which pay at the highest levels of American business exceeds that received by other workers. In fact, according to a recent study by Anderson, Cavanagh, Collins, & Benjamin (2006) the ratio of CEO pay to that of the average worker grew 380% from 107:1 in 1990 to 411:1 in 2005. While growing attention has been paid to the distribution of pay across the hierarchy of corporations, the question of the distribution in pay within top management groups has gone little-studied. Yet, a growing cadre of researchers across multiple disciplines has yielded interesting insights into the antecedents and consequences of pay disparities in top management teams. With this dissertation I seek to spur further investigation into this strategically relevant phenomenon and to move the current debate beyond tournament theoretic explanations by showing that pay disparities within top management groups arise as a function of the distribution of power within them. This study is based on a sample of 604 publicly-traded firms drawn from the S&P 1500 that served as the context in which a theoretical model linking sociopolitical factors in the top management group, top management group pay disparities, and subsequent financial performance was tested using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and structured equation modeling (SEM) techniques. Results indicate that CEO power plays an important role in the distribution of compensation within top management groups and the extent to which pay is disparate. Further, results show that top management group pay disparities have an economically relevant effect on subsequent financial performance. The dissertation and its findings make some important contributions to the top manager compensation, managerial power, and corporate governance literatures by providing new insights into both the antecedents and consequences of top management disparities.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business administration
Management
CEO power
Top management pay disparities
Top Management Group Pay Disparities and Subsequent Firm Performance: The Effect of Powerful CEOs
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/43142020-07-16T14:12:47Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Cinicioglu, Esma N.
2009-01-12T05:18:31Z
2009-01-12T05:18:31Z
2008-05-01
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:2546
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4314
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4465-495X
The current methods used to solve stochastic PERT networks overlook the true distribution of the maximum of two distributions and thus fail to compute an accurate estimation of the project completion time. This dissertation presents two different methods to solve stochastic PERT networks. With each method, both by using mixtures of Gaussians and also by using mixtures of truncated exponentials, the distribution of the maximum of two distributions can be approximated accurately. In the first method a PERT network is first transformed into a MoG Bayesian network and then Lauritzen-Jensen algorithm is used to make inferences in the resulting MoG Bayesian network. The transformation process involves approximating non-Gaussian distributions using MoG's, finding maximum of two distributions using MoG's. As PERT networks are transformed into MoG Bayesian networks arc reversals may also become necessary since MoG Bayesian networks does not allow discrete variables to have continuous parents. This dissertation presents arc reversals in hybrid Bayesian networks with deterministic variables between every possible pair of variables. In the second stage of the research MTE Bayesian networks are introduced as an alternative for solving stochastic PERT networks. We demonstrated the easy applicability of MTE potentials by finding the marginal probability distribution of a PERT example using MTE's. This calculation process involves the conversion of the PERT network into a PERT Bayes net, transformation of the PERT Bayes net into a MTE network and finally propagation of the MTE potentials using the Shenoy-Shafer architecture. Finding the distribution of the maximum of two distributions using MTE's is described as an operation necessary to propagate in MTE PERT networks. The second essay of this dissertation discusses a potential application of radio frequency identification (RFID) and collaborative filtering for targeted advertising in grocery stores. Every day hundreds of items in grocery stores are marked down for promotional purposes. Whether these promotions are effective or not depends primarily on whether the customers are aware of them or not and secondarily whether the products on promotion are products in which the customer will be interested. Currently, the companies are relatively incapable of influencing the customers' decision-making process while they are shopping. However, the capabilities of RFID technology enable us to transfer the recommendation systems of e-commerce to grocery stores. In our model, using RFID technology, we get real time information about the products placed in the cart during the shopping process. Based on that information we inform the customer about those promotions in which the customer is likely to be interested in. The selection of the product advertised is a dynamic decision making process since it is based on the information of the products placed inside the cart while customer is shopping. Collaborative filtering is used for the identification of the advertised product and Bayesian networks will be used for the application of collaborative filtering. We are assuming a scenario where all products have RFID tags, and grocery carts are equipped with RFID readers and screens that would display the relevant promotions. We present our model first using the data set available for the Netflix prize competition. As the second stage of the research we use grocery data set and develop a new heuristic to select the products to be used in the Bayesian network created.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business administration
Pert
Bayesian networks
Mixtures of exponentials
Rfid
Targeted advertising
Collaborative filtering
On Solving Stochastic PERT Networks and Using RFIDs for Operations Management
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/102422020-09-10T13:12:56Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Schepker, Donald Joseph
2012-10-27T11:53:30Z
2012-10-27T11:53:30Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12252
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10242
Research on the dismissal of Chief Executive Officers has primarily examined how firm performance and executive power affect dismissal. However, the process used to evaluate a CEO's capabilities is complex, as a myriad of factors affect firm performance outside of the CEO's control and the board often has minimal interaction with the CEO. Instead, the board may be forced to examine external cues or signals that help provide information regarding the CEO's capabilities. Analyzing 3,648 firm-year observations for likelihood of dismissal, this dissertation examines the role that CEO human and reputational capital play with regard to signaling the board regarding the CEO's capabilities as well as the effects of the market for alternative CEO candidates on the likelihood of CEO dismissal. Findings from probit regression analysis indicate that CEOs are less likely to be dismissed when they have greater tenure, a greater base salary, a less negative reputation in the media, and when there are fewer non-CEO inside directors serving on the board. These results suggest that the board identifies some external cues when evaluating CEOs and evaluates visible internal candidates in the decision to dismiss a CEO. Building upon this line of research, the second chapter of this dissertation examines the career consequences of dismissal on the future job prospects of executives. I argue that dismissal serves as a stigma on executive careers which reduces job future prospects. However, executives may use human, reputational, and social capital to buffer themselves from the effects of stigmatization. Examining the re-employment prospects of 88 dismissed executives, results using Cox Proportional Hazards models indicate that executive job prospects at publicly traded organizations are lessened following dismissal for reasons of violation of fiduciary duty or personal conduct. Alternatively, executive re-employment is more likely when executives have experience with prestigious organizations, have a reputation for being a top CEO, have less negative publicity, and are located in a major city. These results suggest that while dismissal may be stigmatizing, such effects can be overcome with acquired human, reputational, and social capital.
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Management
Behavioral theory of the firm
CEO dismissal
Corporate governance
Executive mobility
Executive turnover
Stigma
The role of executive capital and the market for alternative candidates in CEO dismissal and labor market consequences for dismissed chief executives
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/83712020-08-20T13:25:27Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Sun, Wenying
2011-11-12T23:31:08Z
2011-11-12T23:31:08Z
2011-09-19
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11806
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/8371
To advance the nomological net and theory, this dissertation proposed a comprehensive pair programming research model where the relationships among system complexity, programming methods, pair composition, effort, duration, defect rate, knowledge transfer, and various cost constructs were investigated. A multi-method, multi-study empirical approach was adopted. The survey method was employed for Study 1, and the bootstrap simulation method for Study 2. The reponses from 191 industry software developers and the simulation results suggest the previous conclusions regarding pair programming are limited in nature and the pair programming approach may not be as desirable in all situations as was previously assumed. The pair programming approach clearly adds value in situations where it is appropriate but certain conditions must be met for this goal to be achieved. Pair composition must be taken into account, and it is important to examine the interactions of multiple cost factors such as defect, effort, duration, and knowledge transfer and consider their combined effect on the ultimate goal of the project.
en
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business
Cost
Effort
Knowledge transfer
Pair composition
Pair programming
System complexity
THE TRUE COST OF PAIR PROGRAMMING: DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL AND TEST
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/148942017-12-08T21:46:53Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Bendapudi, Neeli
2014-08-07T14:27:01Z
2014-08-07T14:27:01Z
1994-08-01
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/14894
openAccess
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The Use of Heuristics in Service Evaluations
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/67682020-08-04T13:42:38Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Wang, Ze
2010-10-03T04:49:21Z
2010-10-03T04:49:21Z
2010-05-10
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11039
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6768
Businesses go to great lengths to create positive emotional experiences for their customers, often applying the same affective or emotional practices in communication with a culturally diverse customer base. This dissertation argues that culture-specific emotional norms and display rules shape consumers' responses to marketers' attempts to use positive emotions as a persuasion tool. Simply put, an emotional campaign that works in Boston may not work in Beijing. Through two essays, this dissertation investigates the cultural effect on consumers' affect valuation by focusing on two issues that have important managerial implications. Essay One examines the effectiveness of one ubiquitous marketing tactic--employees' (positive) affective display (EAD) in customer interactions. Departing from the prevailing view that "service with a smile" is always desirable, this research shows that the relative impacts of EAD dimensions (authenticity and frequency) on customer outcomes (positive mood, negative mood, interaction quality, and customer satisfaction) depend on the affective content associated with the service and customer/employee cultural group membership. Under certain circumstances, positive EADs may even boomerang. The identification of boundary conditions of EAD efficacy reconciles the conflicting findings in prior literature and provides more consistent practical guidelines. Essay Two investigates people's preferences and pursuit of different types of positive emotions--high arousal emotions (excitement, elation, and enthusiasm) and low arousal positive emotions (peacefulness, quiescence, and relaxation). Findings demonstrate that westerners and younger adults, compared to easterners and older adults, value HAP emotions more and LAP emotions less. Moreover, drawing on regulatory focus theory and primary/secondary control framework, this research sheds light on the motivational mechanisms underlying the cultural effect on people's emotion valuation.
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Business administration
Marketing
Affect valuation
Culture
IMPACT OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN AFFECT VALUATION ON CUSTOMER DECISION MAKING
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/106562020-09-17T13:23:04Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Wadhwa, Preeti
2013-01-20T16:25:07Z
2013-01-20T16:25:07Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12442
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10656
This study adopts a multilevel, multiple stakeholder perspective to examine the impact of high involvement work systems (HIWS) and supervisory support on organizational effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness is measured in terms of employee experiences of work, employee turnover (voluntary and involuntary measured separately), customer satisfaction with service performance and loyalty, and financial performance (organizational traffic and sales). Guided by the contingency theory, I situate my study in the service sector with a focus on the hospitality industry. The model and the related hypotheses investigate the role of employee experiences of job resources (characteristics of jobs and co-worker support) and engagement as a linking mechanism between HIWS, supervisory support and the various employee and organizational level outcomes in question. The results suggest that in relatively smaller establishments in the service industry, which are characterized by an informal structure, supervisory support is the prime determinant of employee experiences of work and may supersede the influence of HR practices. Moreover, results of complex cross-level mediation analyses provide additional evidence to support the notion of a service market chain. Research and practical implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Management
Employee experiences
Frontline employees
High involvement work systems
Hospitality industry
Job demands-resources framework
Strategic human resource management
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIGH INVOLVEMENT WORK SYSTEMS, SUPERVISORY SUPPORT, AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: THE ROLE OF EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCES AT WORK
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/85532020-08-03T12:55:41Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Huang, Ying
2011-12-02T20:39:05Z
2011-12-02T20:39:05Z
2010-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11007
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/8553
Restatements are made to correct material errors in companies' financial statements previously filed with SEC. Companies try to avoid restatements because a restatement itself would raise the question of whether the management has been playing the "Numbers Game". My dissertation is motivated by the fact that there was a sharp increase in the frequency of financial restatements over the past decade. Investors, auditors and regulators are seriously concerned about restatements. My dissertation, entitled "Three Essays on Characteristics and Economic Consequences of Financial Statement Restatements", examines restatements from three different perspectives. Study one examines accounting conservatism following restatement disclosures. This paper provides evidence that companies increased earnings conservatism following restatements. In addition, the increased conservatism is more evident among companies that make improvements in their corporate governance. Study two investigates the changes in market reactions to restatement announcements. This study explores why the average market reaction to restatement announcements has decreased by 85 percent since year of 2001. It documents that the dampened market reaction is mainly associated with a change in the characteristics of errors companies correct, and also with who initiated the restatements and how complete the disclosure is. Study three examines restatements from an auditing perspective. This paper examines auditor resignations from restating companies' engagements. It investigates what types of restatements are more likely to trigger resignations and how auditor-client relationship impacts resignation decisions.
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Business administration
Accounting
Accounting conservatism
Auditor resignation
Financial restatement
Market reaction
Three Essays on Characteristics and Economic Consequences of Financial Statement Restatements
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/102212020-09-15T14:41:17Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Luth, Matthew Travis
2012-10-27T10:51:42Z
2012-10-27T10:51:42Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12320
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10221
Recently, organizational scholars have stressed the importance of employee proactivity in today's dynamic and uncertain work environment. As such, research has investigated employee proactivity in two similar ways but disconnected ways. Whereas some research focuses on the psychological conditions that give rise to employee proactivity, other research investigates the behavioral manifestations of proactivity. This dissertation integrates the behavioral and psychological approaches to proactivity with a sample of 423 non-profit employees. I first developed a generic scale to represent personal, interpersonal, and organizational dimensions of proactive work behavior. Results indicate that the three proposed beneficiary dimensions of proactive work behavior are distinct from one another, yet together identify a higher-order category of proactive work behavior. Additional findings indicate that proactive work behaviors are empirically distinguishable from task, citizenship, and counterproductive work behaviors. Next, I develop a theoretical model that links psychological empowerment and job stressors to proactive and counterproductive work behaviors. These results indicate that challenge (hindrance) stressors are positively (negatively) associated with psychological empowerment. Additional findings revealed a positive association between psychological empowerment and proactive work behaviors, as well as interpersonal counterproductive work behaviors. Finally, the results suggest that psychological empowerment mediates the relationships between stressors and proactive work behaviors, but not counterproductive work behaviors.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Organizational behavior
Counterproductive work behavior
Job stressors
Proactive work behaivor
Psychological empowerment
Structural equation modeling
The bright and dark sides of empowerment: Linking psychological empowerment and job stressors to proactive and counterproductive work behaviors
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/40322020-07-16T15:33:42Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_60col_1808_1952col_1808_14152
Messersmith, Jake
2008-08-05T03:15:50Z
2008-08-05T03:15:50Z
2008-06-17
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:2617
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4032
Emerging firms are the foundation for economic growth in today's business world, yet relatively little is known about the factors that contribute to the success or failure of developing organizations. This research study helps to address this broad question by examining the role that managerial values and practices play in the performance of high-tech start-ups. Using the resource-based and dynamic capability perspectives, this research project examines three critical factors that are likely to affect the performance of emerging firms: human resource policies and practices, an overarching philosophy of partnership, and an entrepreneurial orientation. Each of these is argued to produce a sustainable competitive advantage by providing firms with the ability to dynamically configure and reconfigure resource bundles. Results indicate that high performance work systems and partnership philosophy are positively associated with sales growth and innovation. Additional findings suggest that partnership and an entrepreneurial orientation both increase the likelihood of implementing high performance work systems. Finally, the results suggest that firms combining a greater utilization of high performance work systems with an entrepreneurial orientation achieve higher levels of sales growth.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Business administration
Management
High performance work systems
Entrepreneurship
Partnership philosophy
Transforming Caterpillars Into Butterflies: The Role of Managerial Values and HR Systems in the Performance of Emergent Organizations
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/264272018-05-17T08:01:14Zcom_1808_60com_1808_1260col_1808_14152col_1808_1951
Mitchell, Willie B.
2018-05-16T13:59:53Z
2018-05-16T13:59:53Z
1958
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/26427
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use, and redistribute in part or in whole. No known restrictions apply to the
work.
An analysis of the organization and operation of selected negro retail business establishments in Mississippi
Thesis