Research: Doctoral Dissertations

2004

Consumer Heterogeneity in the Long-term Effects of Price Promotions
By Jooseop Lim

While a significant literature has emerged recently on the long-term effects of price promotions, as inferred from persistence models, there is very little if any attention paid to whether such long-term effects vary across different types of consumers. We use two different approaches to address this issue: (1) a priori segmentation method to explore whether the adjustment, permanent, and total effects of price promotions and the duration of the adjustment period differ between consumers segmented based on their usage rates in a product category and their loyalty to a brand, and (2) finite mixture segmental hidden Markov model to classify consumers based on their long-term response patterns to a promotion.

For the first approach, expectations are developed based on consumer behavior theory on various effects of price promotions, such as the post deal trough, the mere purchase effect, the promotion usage effect, and responsiveness to competitors' reactions, and evidence from household level supermarket scanner data from four product categories is provided. We find substantial differences between consumer segments, in providing insights on how managers can increase the long-term effectiveness of price promotions by targeting each consumer segment with a different promotion program. In addition, consumer segmentation is found to improve the forecasting performance of the persistence model, in particular when segmentation results in increased variation in total quantity sold across weeks.

For the second approach, we first estimate VARX models and generated impulse response functions for each household. A finite mixture segmental hidden Markov model is applied to the individual-level impulse response functions to classify households into segments based on their long-term response patterns. We find a multiple segment solution is better than a single segment solution in terms of BIC criteria indicating again the existence of consumer heterogeneity in long-term effects of promotions. The segments are found to differ on the average duration of adjustment periods. Finally, we describe each segment based on characteristics of their purchase behavior.

2003

Children as Autonomous Consumers of Emerging Technologies
By Nivein A. Behairy

Investigating the interplay between children and emerging technologies forces the question: How are children making sense of the various technologies and how do they participate in them? Theoretic contribution is centered on attempts to understanding the role children take on in their participation and negotiation of the technological environment.

Assuming the position that childhood is a social phenomenon and children are active participants of society worthy of study in their own right, in-depth interviews were analyzed utilizing the grounded theory approach to develop an understanding for the topic under study. The software package QSR NUD*IST Vivo (NVivo) was employed in managing the data analysis. Data analyses reveal that children assume an autonomous nature, constructing, interpreting, and manipulating their technological environment. This dictates how technology is integrated in their lives within different contexts of family, peers, and school.
Firm Value and Hedging: Evidence from U.S. Oil and Gas Producers
By Yanbo Jin

This paper studies hedging activities of 124 U.S. oil and gas producers in 1999, and evaluates their impact on firm value. Theories of hedging based on market imperfections imply that hedging should increase the firm's market value. We first verify that hedging reduces the firm's stock price sensitivity to oil and gas prices and that the effect is economically significant. Contrary to previous studies, however, we find that hedging does not seem to affect a firm's market value. Our result is robust to many control variables that theory or empirical findings have shown to have an effect on a firm's value. The list includes size, profitability, investment growth, leverage, and earnings volatility, among others. Our result also persists in the subgroup of large firms and firms with potentially higher cost of financial distress, which we find are the determinants of oil and gas firms decision to hedge. One interpretation of our result is that there is no hedging premium in this industry because the exposure to these commodity price risks is transparent and can be easily hedged by investors.

This study contributes to the current literature on hedging by showing that the value of hedging depends on the types of risks a firm is exposed to. As a firm moves closer to the environment described by Modigliani-Miller conditions, the rationale behind hedging diminishes. In particular, we show that in the oil and gas industry, when market risk exposure is clear and hedging instruments are easily accessible to investors, we no longer observe a hedging premium.
Genetically Modified Food on the Plate: Food Consumption in the Time of Frankenfood
By Maria Kniazeva

By investigating consumer perception of genetically engineered food this research pursues a twofold objective: it examines the symbolic meanings of contemporary food consumption and explores the process of meaning generation and meaning transfer in the domain of incomplete knowledge. The theoretical contribution of this research is rooted in attempts to understand how consumers make sense of products that do not provide them with the conscious experience of acquiring, using, and disposing of them. The study also gains empirical significance because it identifies emerging meanings attached to food and implications for consumer culture.

The grounded theory approach used here is designed to include visual tools as elicitation techniques for in-depth interviews. The explanatory framework builds on a theory of symbolic consumption (Levy) and theory of meaning transfer (McCracken). Attempts at extending these theories are made by offering a cultural critique of generated meanings and uncovering additional vehicles of meaning transfer (such as popular movies, historical facts, and anecdotes). The process of meaning construction and meaning transfer in the domain of incomplete knowledge has been found highly symbolic. The category of naturalness has been identified as a frame of reference for consumer perception of genetically modified food.
Impact of Decision-Right Delegation and Firm Strategies on Line-Function Managers' Performance Evaluation and Incentive Compensation
By Ping Lin

This dissertation is one of the first studies on line-function managers' performance evaluation and incentive compensation (PEIC) and to explore the linkage between evaluations and compensation structures. Through a survey conducted in the southern California area, I collected 181 responses from 14 companies/divisions in the new economy and 11 companies/divisions in the traditional economy.

Following prior research on CEO compensation, I hypothesize and find that both the types of decision rights delegated and a firm's strategy significantly influence line-function managers' PEIC structures. Specifically, among financial, nonfinancial and subjective performance measures, sales managers' PEIC have the highest weights on financial measures while design managers' PEIC have the highest weights on subjective measures. In addition, I find a positive association between a firm's strategic competitive foci and managers' performance measures in their evaluation. I also explore the relationship between performance measures in a line-function manager's performance evaluation and her incentive compensation. While weights on performance measures in these two structures are positively associated, incentive compensation formulas place higher weights on financial measures than are placed on them in evaluations.
An Economic Analysis of Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce: The Interaction of Industry Structure and B2B-Exchange Design Choices
By Robert K. Plice

Game-theoretic economic models are developed to explore the effects on output, price and welfare resulting from the establishment of B2B exchanges. The models are selected to represent differing degrees of industry concentration on the upstream and downstream sides of the market, based on case studies of B2B exchanges that have arisen in three sectors of the economy. The empirical analysis reveals that the value-creation strategy employed by B2B exchanges differs depending on whether the buyers and sellers face high or low levels of competition in their industries. When the sellers are concentrated and the buyers are competitive, B2B exchanges arise that follow a demand-pooling value-creation strategy. An economic model is developed to analyze such exchanges, deriving the equilibrium ownership and membership structure. It is found that high willingness-to-pay buyers will join the B2B exchange, and the introduction of the exchange will result in increased output, lower price and increased social welfare. These effects depend critically on the exchange's policy for collecting and disclosing transaction information, however, and obtain only if contracts of cooperation between sellers are excluded. When the sellers are competitive and the buyers are concentrated, empirical observations support the tendency for B2B exchanges arise to enable collaboration and the use of markets rather than hierarchies. A second economic model is developed to analyze exchanges in this setting, deriving the impact on price, output and profits. It is found that social welfare and buyers' profits both increase when such a B2B exchange is formed, as the buyers are able to overcome the coordination costs arising from private cost information held by the sellers. From the point of view of the sellers, the welfare effects of such B2B exchanges depend on the level of concentration in the sellers' own industry and the levels of concentration in industries that supply the buyers with complementary goods. As in the first model, it is found that the positive welfare effects of B2B-exchange formation depend critically on the design choices made with respect to information collection and disclosure, which is a key difference between B2B exchanges and other forms of interorganizational information systems.
IPO Misvaluation, Flipping and Long Term Performance
By Kuntara Pukthuanthong

This is the first paper examining the relation between IPO misevaluation calculated from regression and comparable firm approaches, and the quantity of IPO shares sold immediately after the IPO, an action called "flipping," and it illustrates how flipping predicts long-term IPO performance. The result is believed to be of considerable interest to investment practitioner. The dataset includes sample IPOs from 1993 to 2001 that covers before, during and after the Internet bubble period. First, flipping can be predicted by misevaluation, opening-day return and the size of IPO issue. IPOs with low misevaluation, high opening-day return and large size have low flipping. Moreoever, I find that high-flipped IPOs underperform low-flipped IPOs from the second sixth-month until the third year. In addition, the result implies that low-flipped IPOs with low misevaluation outperform high-flipped IPOs with high misevaluation in the long run (three years in this study). In conclusion, this paper suggests to investors that they buy IPOs with low misevaluation, high opening-trade return and large size because such IPOs have low flipping. These low-flipped IPOs have better performance than high-flipped IPOs over the long-term.
The Influence of Information Technology and Organizational Improvement Efforts on the Performance of firms
By Ronald Vincent Ramirez

The relationship between firm investment in information technology (IT) and productivity improvement has been a topic of research for the past several decades. While early studies provide mixed evidence of a positive link, more recent work consistently indicates that IT investment significantly benefits a firm's overall performance. Building upon this knowledge, researchers have shifted their attention to the identification of how IT affects performance. Only through an in-depth understanding of the components of value generation can researchers provide the information necessary for profit maximizing IT investment decisions.

A line of inquiry in this research stream is the identification of organizational factors that complement IT. These factors take advantage of IT's characteristics and when combined with IT, make positive contributions to firm performance. Unfortunately, research in this area is limited and many organizational practices used within Fortune 1000 firms have yet to be examined in this vein.

In this thesis, we help to close this knowledge gap by investigating three sets of organizational work practices used extensively by Fortune 1000 firms; Employee Involvement, Total Quality Management, and Reengineering. We examine information technology and these organization improvement efforts to determine if a complementary relationship exists between these factors. In addition, we investigate whether or not a coordinated adoption of these investments has a significant effect on firm performance.

Our results indicate that IT is a key enabler of the organizational work practices of employee involvement and TQM. In addition, when combined with IT, these two organizational improvement efforts positively contribute to the performance of firms. The results are consistent to economic and financial outcome measures; situations where these two efforts are implemented as one coordinated program; and are especially strong for firms in the manufacturing sector. Reengineering, on the other hand, does not demonstrate a significant relationship with IT, nor do we find any evidence that the use of IT and reengineering significantly impacts firms. Nonetheless, our results demonstrate that organizational practices can complement investments in IT and if chosen appropriately, an integrated application of organizational practices and IT can positively contribute to a firm's overall performance.
Technological Response to Economic Disruption: The Role of New Technologies in Mitigating Exogenous Economic Shocks
By Aron Scott Spencer

The three essays in this dissertation deal with the role of technology in mitigating economic disruption. Much research has been done on the disruptive effects of technology; in contrast, these essays look at how technology can be used to reduce the effects of exogenous disruptions. Each essay looks at the issue at a different level; the first at the firm level, the second at the industry level and the final essay at the level of the national economy.

The first essay examines the options and possible strategies for firms faced with increased instability in their electricity supply, as recently occurred in California. This paper develops response strategies for companies affected by an electrical crisis. These responses fall into three categories: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the State. The technologies available to companies choosing to lead are reviewed, along with constraints to their adoption. From these strategies, it can be shown that areas with unstable electrical markets can expect a loss of firms to locales with less risk and uncertainty, unless governments adopt policies promoting distributed generation.

The second essay projects the economic impacts of the adoption of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technologies in electric generation, transmission, and distribution systems. Three technologies utilizing high-temperature superconductors are analyzed for their potential impact on the electrical utility industry. Distributed superconducting magnetic energy storage systems (D-SMES), Superconducting cable, and HTS generators are each described along with their possible uses in the electrical utility industry. The economic impact of these technologies is then projected, along with a comparison between them and conventionl technologies.

The third essay deals with the role of technology in mitigating the economic effects of the reaction to terrorist attacks. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, public and private investments are being diverted from productive to protective uses. This essay examines the possible economic effects of such a reallocation of resources, and shows how this shift in investment is likely to dampen long-term economic growth. Whether one uses Solow growth model derivatives or Austrian school methods, the diversion of resources has negative implications for economic growth.
The Impact of Computer-Mediated Communication on the Processes and Outcomes of Buyer-Seller Negotiations
By Guang Yang

This dissertation is composed of two major parts. Each part has five mini chapters. Part 1 examines the impact of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on the processes and outcomes of buyer-seller negotiations in the United States. Social presence theory (Short et al. 1976) was used to explain how two kinds of CMC-instant messaging (IM) and email-differ from traditional face-to-face (FTF) communication in their impact on integrative and distributive bargaining strategies, negotiation time, Pareto efficiency, and joint satisfaction in buyer-seller negotiations. Negotiation simulations were conducted in three media conditions: face-to-face, IM, and email conditions. Negotiation transcripts produced in these conditions were content analyzed using categories from the negotiation literature (Hyder et al. 2000). It was found that email negotiators used significantly more integrative tactics than IM and FTF negotiators. IM negotiators used significantly more integrative tactics than FTF negotiators. IM Negotiators achieved higher level of Pareto efficiency and joint satisfaction than FTF negotiators. Negotiation tactics were found to mediate the effect of media condition on Pareto efficiency. This research suggests that in individualistic oriented buyer-seller negotiations, the lower level of social presence may lead to higher joint outcomes.

Part 2 examined culture's effect on the processes and outcomes of buyer-seller negotiations conducted through IM. The effects were examined by comparing Hong Kong (H.K.) Chinese intra-cultural negotiations with U.S. intra-cultural negotiations (data from Chapter 1). The high-low context of culture (Hall 1976), together with the degree of social presence of the media, were found to influence negotiation behaviors and outcomes in IM. Negotiators from high context culture (H.K.) used more distributive tactics, needed significantly longer time, and achieved lower Pareto efficiency and less joint satisfaction than negotiators from low context culture (U.S.) when negotiating through IM. Negotiation tactics were found to mediate the effect of culture on Pareto efficiency. These results suggest that the lower the salience of the context of culture, the higher the joint outcome of negotiations conducted through IM.

2002

Paternalism in Contemporary Organizations: A Theory and Test of Organizational Benevolence and Decision-making Control
By Patricia Garcia Martinez

Scholars generally discuss paternalism as existing in past eras or in cultures outside of the United States. Additionally, because paternalism involves decision-making control, it is assumed to negatively influence employees' job attitudes and behaviors. In contrast, the theory of organizational benevolence and paternalism that is developed and tested here proposes that these concepts are relevant to the study of all contemporary organizations. Organizational benevolence is proposed as a component of paternalism, a system or a practice of managing individuals that combines decision-making control with benevolence in providing for employees' welfare. The proposed model is based upon a social exchange framework and examines the associations among employees' perceptions of organizational benevolence, the human resource management (HRM) practices associated with these perceptions, organizational decision-making control and employees' job attitudes and behaviors. Questionnaire survey data are collected in the U.S. in one healthcare services and two software-development organizations, for a total of 298 supervisor and employee participants. The data are used to test the proposed model and hypotheses. Job-focused HRM practices exhibit a positive relationship with employee's perceptions of organizational benevolence. Additionally, organizational benevolence mediates the relationship between job-focused HRM practices and employees' job attitudes. Exploratory analyses support organizational benevolence as a mediator between organizational decision-making control and employees' job attitudes. Organizational benevolence is found to mitigate 1) the negative relationship between organizational control and employees' organizational commitment and 2) the positive relationship between organizational control and intentions to quit. Finally, in a series of competing tests, five out of twelve tests support organizational benevolence as a better predictor than its related construct, perceived organizational support (POS), of the relationships among job-focused HRM practices, organizational decision-making control and employees' job attitudes.
The Search for Homogenous Groups: The Use and Applicability of the Standard Industrial Classification in Accounting Research
By Ashok Natarajan

The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system has been used by academic and professional researchers to classify companies into homogenous groups with varying degrees of success. This study examines another source of historical SIC code assignments to companies that has become recently available to ascertain if this classification yields any improvements in classifying companies into homogenous groups. The historical SIC code from Compustat is contrasted with the traditionally used current SIC code, the historical CRSP SIC code, and the degree of homogeneity within industry groupings and across industry groupings is examined to see if better results can be obtained under any one system of industry classification. It is shown that the historical SIC code from Compustat exhibits lower composite variance for a set of twenty financial ratios, compared to the historical CRSP SIC code classification, or the current Compustat or CRSP SIC code classification. Moreover, it is shown that the composite variance increases when aggregating the SIC codes to less than four digits, uniformly under the historical and current SIC codes assigned by Compustat and CRSP. The different SIC coding systems are also compared by replicating Lang and Lundholm (1996), to compare the SIC coding systems on the basis of the coefficient on the variable representing an industry information transfer effect. It is shown that the Historical Compustat 4-digit classification system, in capturing the industry effect, as well as in terms of a comparison of the industry effect for regressions performed on an industry basis.
Optimal Inventory Policies in Serial Supply Chains: Bounds, Heuristics, and Insights
By Kevin H. Shang

After decades of development, multi-echelon inventory theory lays the foundation for supply-chain inventory management, and is playing an important role in today's increasingly active supply chain management research. This dissertation reports the findings in our recent research that aims to make the theory more transparent and easier to implement. We develop simple and surprisingly good closed-form heuristics for the optimal inventory policy parameters in serial supply chains. These heuristic solutions can be easily obtained by simple spreadsheet calculations. The results also provide the guidance on some managerial issues, such as stock positioning, resource allocation, and coordination.

2001

Information Technology Investment Impact and Industry Structure: Evidence from Firms and Industries
By Nigel Patrick Melville

Numerous empirical studies have investigated the economic impact of information technology (IT) investment. Spurred by the productivity paradox - increased investment in IT concurrent with diminished productivity growth - both economists and management researchers have used a variety of methods to determine the business value of IT. Taken as a whole, business unit, firm, industry, and aggregate economy studies have begun to exhibit some consistency in results vis-à-vis positive impacts. However, many gaps in our knowledge remain.

Some researchers have turned their attention toward the examination of complementary factors which may improve the return on IT investment. A few early studies focus on managerial practices, arguing that such practices as decentralized decision making and the use of teams best leverage informational assets and the associated underlying technologies. In addition, researchers have recently suggested that empirical investigations of the return to IT investment must control for factors which lower production efficiency.

In this vein, we advance the research stream by focusing on factors which moderate the investment impact of IT, as well as examining the relationship between IT returns and growth. We examine how the absence of competitive pressures in highly concentrated industries lowers the return on IT investment. Firms in such industries capture rents, but without the imposition of market pressures to innovate with IT. Our results indicate that firms in more highly competitive industries do indeed exhibit lower returns on their IT investment, bearing out our hypotheses. In addition, we highlight the difficulty in optimizing efficiency in an environment characterized by high union involvement. In such cases, the firm is not able to operate at the point of tangency where the isoquant meets the profit line, due to constraints on substitution toward cheaper IT for expensive labor. Our results indicate that in the case of highly unionized firms, IT returns are lower. Interestingly, low and moderate degrees of unionization show equally positive returns to IT investment. Finally, we find a significant and positive relation between growing industries and IT investment impact, which is consistent with the notion that efficient use of IT does indeed spur growth.
A Self-Affirmation Analysis of Employee Resistance to Organizational Change
By Christopher D. Zatzick

In this dissertation, the self-concept is proposed as central to understanding individuals' responses to organizational change. Specifically, major organizational changes are hypothesized to threaten the foundation used to define one's self-concept. According to the proposed model, individuals that perceive greater threats to the self-concept from organizational changes will have more negative attitudes about the changes and have higher intentions to leave the organization. Further, drawing on self-affirmation theory I predict that organizations can reduce resistance to major changes by providing employees opportunities to affirm their self-concepts. Two potential sources of self-affirmation within an organizational setting are examined: change relevant actions and human resource (HR) programs. In a study that included 160 employees in 3 recently acquired or merged organizations, support for the proposed model was found. Individuals that experienced threats to the self-concept in the form of identity confusion or reduced control had more negative attitudes toward the change. Reduced control was negatively related to self-reported positive view of changes, while identity confusion was negatively associated with supervisor ratings of employee change-related behaviors. Identity confusion mediated the relationships between independent assessments of change and negative affect toward the change. As self-affirmation theory predicts, affirmation of the self-concept from change-relevant actions was positively associated with positive view of changes while affirmation from HR programs was positively related to supervisor assessment of employee change acceptance. In sum, the overall pattern of results supports the main tenets of self-affirmation theory. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for understanding employee responses to organizational change are discussed.

2000

An Empirical Investigation of Preferences over Sequences of Outcomes and Applications in the Monetary, Environmental and Health Domains: A Decision Analysis Approach
By Jeffery L. Guyse

Three anomalies revealed in previous research (Gain/Loss Asymmetry, Short/Long Asymmetry, and the Absolute Magnitude Effect) using a pairwise matching elicitation procedure were investigated using a relative valuation of sequences task. It appears that the participants of this study used additional factors other than discounting to rank the monetary sequences. The strongest factor was a Gain/Loss effect. In addition, participants preferred to spread the outcomes over time if they were losses, and consolidate them if they were gains. This preference for spreading was stronger with a larger magnitude of money. There was also a Gain/Loss effect in the pairwise matching task, in which losses were discounted at a higher rate than gains. This asymmetry is in the opposite direction than expected and not consistent with the responses given in their other task. The participants were more consistent between the two tasks when the outcome was a gain than when it was a loss.

In addition, experimental results on individuals' preferences for temporal sequences of environmental outcomes related to air quality and near-shore ocean water quality were compared with preferences for sequences of health and monetary outcomes. Generally, the participants gave significantly lower ratings to environmental and health sequences (with equal means) that worsened over time, relative to the ratings they gave to sequences that either remained the same or improved over time. This pattern was reversed when they faced sequences of monetary payments. This preference structure held for both short (5-year) and long (50-year) time horizons, and was confirmed with choice date. A positive relationship between an expectation that the most likely sequence would be decreasing and a choice of a decreasing sequence as ideal was also found in all domains but monetary. A model proposed by Loewenstein and Prelec was applied to the current data and compared to the traditional discounting model. In all cases, the model that incorporated "Gestalt" features of the sequence (slope and uniformity) performed better than the discounting model at predicting the mean ratings for the different sequences.
Strategic Regeneration
By Kenneth M. Kambara

Does corporate reputation lead to competitive advantage or just increase costs? Firms in hypercompetition are faced with the decisions to build and sustain corporate reputations but the firm performance effects of these intangible resources is not entirely clear. This paper asserts that corporate reputations provide advantages by signaling a firm's position as well as serving as a basis for market relationships. There is a lack of empirical research on intangible resources and firm performance. This paper uses six years of data on 54 undiversified and single-brand firms. In this study, we model how the intangible resource of corporate reputation is linked to competitive advantage, when firm and industry effects are controlled for. We found that corporate reputation is positively associated with firm performance, when controlling for firm size, firm age, industry concentration, and industry profits. The positive effects from strong corporate reputations appear to be distinct from other firm and industry characteristics.
The Impacts of Information Technology and Direct Labor Practices on High Tech Manufacturing Performance: The Disk Drive Industry
By Kevin Kobelsky

In recent decades, globalization of product markets, hypercompetition and technological advances have made product markets much more dynamic and volatile. This has placed increasing demands upon manufacturing to the point that traditional organizing strategies which attempt to 'seal off' the technical core have become ineffective. Information technology and world class manufacturing practices have been two of the most popular mechanisms adopted to address these demands and improve performance. Despite the significant amount of research that has been carried out on IT's impact on performance, we have learned little about why some IT investments are worthwhile and others are not, and what factors moderate IT's impacts.

This dissertation investigates whether IT affects performance in high tech manufacturing and how it does so. The effect of manufacturing labor practices as a moderator of IT's impacts is also investigated. A general model is proposed that applies information processing theory to IT and extends it based on insights from qualify control and the sociology of work. It provides a description of how IT is improving performance, in contrast to much of previous research that either treats the firm as a 'black box', or is exploratory and atheoretical. The model is tested in a field study of 32 plants constituting approximately 40% of the value-added in the disk drive industry.

The findings indicate that IT does have a significant impact on manufacturing performance, but that the impacts on performance are contingent upon the capabilities of the IT and the physical and information processing requirements of the manufacturing process. Participatory labor practices are found to be related to performance, but not as predicted by idealist accounts. Work forces are becoming more flexible, but their skill levels are increasing only marginally. Contrary to widely held emancipatory views, the use of IT is not associated with greater use of participatory labor practices. Instead, the information provided by IT is appropriated by engineering staff and managers. This occurs, not because of managerial myopia or a pathological desire for power, but because of deeper institutional challenges to worker upskilling arising from cultural norms and the physical nature of work itself.
Individual and Situational Predictors of Managerial Response to Upward Influence Attempts
By Grace B. McLaughlin

All managers must deal with upward influence attempts. How managers respond to these attempts can have consequences for the target manager, the initiating subordinate, and the organization. A review of the literature demonstrates that past research has explored the upward influence process only from the point of view of the initiating subordinate. In this dissertation, data is collected concerning the range of responses used by target managers in upward influence situations. Hypotheses concerning specified individual and situational characteristics are then tested using hierarchical multiple regression. Resource scarcity is found to significantly moderate the relationship between individual characteristics and the choice of non-compliant yet helpful responses.
Consumer Imagination: Identity and Self-expression in Computer-mediated Environments
By Hope Jensen Schau

While imagination has a long trajectory in the history of ideas and humanities in general, no work in consumer research has fully accessed the notion of imagination. Employing the concept of imagination as borrowed from Western philosophy of experience and later developed in media and communications theory, this dissertation contends self-expression in personal websites is a manifestation of imagination. This paper develops a concept of imagination useful in understanding the lived practices of consumption in an age of global mass media and advanced telecommunications. Drawing upon philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, Vico, Descartes, Hume, Kant), phenomenology (Husserl), literary theory (Coleridge), cultural and media studies (Anderson, Appadurai, Friedberg), communications theory (Turkle, Haraway, Stone), and consumer research (Belk, Bocock, Elliot, Firat, Fisk, Venkatesh), this study examines how individuals imagine themselves and social reality through the consumption of socio-cultural symbols, brands and material objects, and the development of consumption practices.

Empirically, this dissertation is an analysis of personal websites and interviews with their respective creators to understand the tools and strategies consumers use to express themselves in the personal website format and to depict the evolving relationships between consumers, between consumers and organizations, and between consumers and brands in CMEs. The substantive issue addressed in this paper is how new modes of identification made possible in CMEs enact consumer imagination and result in a new techno-social reality, new relationships between consumers and brands and new consumption practices. Conversely, it is assumed that consumer imagination impacts technological innovations.

The principal contributions this paper offers are an exegesis of the term imagination, an exploration of its conceptual utility to the study of consumption, an attempt to delineate a methodology for examining consumer imagination, and an application of the concept of consumer imagination to the ways consumers use personal webspace and utilize corporate websites. I aim to unpack the concept of imagination, apply it to consumer behavior in CMEs, and empirically demonstrate consumer imagination as a fundamental everyday practice.
Intra-Unit Diffusion: Model Development and Empirical Test
By Chuan-Fong Shih

An aspect of diffusion that is important but often overlooked by marketing researchers is the intra-unit diffusion. The concept of intra-unit diffusion deals with how an innovation spreads within the unit of adoption as opposed to how it spreads across units of adoption. It seeks to understand how the innovation, once adopted, is integrated into the unit of adoption through the use of the innovation. The importance of this concept is the fact that adoption does not necessarily imply the successfulness of diffusion, rather, throughout the life cycle of the innovation, disadoption and abandonment occur and thus the act of purchase or adoption does not guarantee the innovation will be successfully integrated. For an innovation to be considered integrated, it entails that the innovation is put to regular practice or use by the unit of adoption (a high extent of diffusion within the unit), behaviors that we cannot observe by investigating solely the act of adoption.

This dissertation seeks to understand the use of computing technologies in the home, the factors that impact various behaviors, and the consequences of such behaviors. In order to accomplish this task, a theoretical framework of Intra-Unit Diffusion was developed that tries to tie together different streams of conceptual works that predict different computer use patterns. A national telephone survey of computer owners in US using stratified sampling techniques was conducted. The telephone survey was augmented with time-diary data, collected using AppTrack, software specifically designed for this study. Propositions proposed in this dissertation were tested with multinomial logit model and multiple comparison T-tests.

Use of computing technology, and changes in such usage behavior, were found to vary greatly among home users. It was found that home users' behavior can be explained in part by three major factors: the social context of computer usage, the technological makeup of the technology and the household, and personal variations among users. It was also found that users with different usage behaviors exhibit different level of satisfaction with computers, its impact on daily life, and interest in acquiring new technologies. The findings have implications as to how marketers should position their products and suggest directions towards new product development.
Explaining Relative Firm Performance in the Personal Computer Manufacturing Industry; A Balanced Scorecard Framework
By Rodney E. Smith

Questions about the relevance of accounting information have generated interest in the use of nonfinancial information to improve performance measurement and decision-making. Research to date, however, has produced only limited evidence of economic benefit from the use of nonfinancial measures. These results may depend as much on firms' ability to implement performance measurement systems that include nonfinancial measures as they depend on the value of the nonfinancial information itself.

This research therefore explores the value of nonfinancial information in conjunction with financial information with respect to explaining firm performance. The value of nonfinancial information is related to its ability to measure relative performance among direct competitors. The nonfinancial information must measure those characteristics that drive long-term strategic success.

This research first proposes a framework that incorporates the cause and effect relationships described in Kaplan and Norton's book The Balanced Scorecard (1996) to integrate nonfinancial leading indicators with financial outcome measures of performance. Using this framework, it addresses two questions: (1) Does nonfinancial information provide insight into the factors that drive different levels of performance within an industry? (2) And, does the framework improve our ability to explain and predict economic performance when compared to models based only on previous financial data?

This research focuses on relative performance in the personal computer manufacturing industry. The highly competitive nature of this industry and the context of rapid change provide a rich environment for examining the role of customer satisfaction. The Balanced Scorecard-oriented framework developed here provides a complete yet parsimonious view of the underlying relationships that determine competitive success or failure in a market or industry.

The evidence shows that the nonfinancial measure, customer satisfaction, is directly related to the relative change in sales and profitability over time, and that relationships is robust to the inclusion of other variables, i.e., proxies for firm image and relative selling prices, that are known to influence consumers' purchase decisions. The personal computer (PC) manufacturing firms that received the highest satisfaction scores enjoyed more than twice the sales growth of other firms. The evidence indicates that customer satisfaction is directly related to nonfinancial measures of business process performance, e.g., process quality and timeliness. It also demonstrates the incremental explanatory power of customer satisfaction when included in models based on the time series nature of accounting data.

Key Words: nonfinancial information; balanced scorecard; personal computer manufacturing industry; customer satisfaction.
A Process-Oriented Assessment of the Alignment of Information Systems and Business Strategy: Implications for IT Business Value
By Paul P. Tallon

Although uncertainty continues to surround the question of payoffs from investment in IT, business executives continue to rank strategic alignment or the alignment of IS strategy with business strategy, as one of the most important issues they face. Researchers argue that strategic alignment and IT payoffs are linked in that an inability to realize sufficient value from IT is due in part to an absence of strategic alignment. Therefore, firms that are trying to improve IT payoffs may need to consider the degree to which IS and business strategies are aligned.

While strategic alignment is usually seen as a measure of the extent to which IT supports the business strategy, this dissertation develops a two-dimensional definition based on IT shortfall (where IT fails to support the business strategy) and IT under-utilization (where business strategy fails to capitalize on existing IT capabilities). This definition is used to create a model depicting the determinants (management practices) and consequences (IT payoffs) of strategic alignment, from which we derive a series of hypotheses relating management practices to strategic alignment and strategic alignment to IT business value.

In order to evaluate the model and hypotheses, we develop a process-oriented perspective on strategic alignment using a series of processes from the value chain that include planning and support, supplier relations, production and operations, product and service enhancement, sales and marketing support and customer relations. From this, we develop a set of three matching survey instruments to assess business strategy, IS strategy and IT payoffs at the process-level.

Complete data for 63 firms was analyzed using partial least squares. The results of this analysis show that there is a positive relationship between strategic alignment and IT payoffs at the process-level, and that this relationship holds for all firms regardless of strategic intent for IT. Furthermore, management practices that product cohesion between executives by, for example, allowing business executives to participate in IS planning or allowing IS executives to participate in business planning, contribute to improved strategic alignment. Finally, our analysis reveals an alignment paradox involving a tradeoff between strategic alignment and organizational flexibility.
PC Standards Switching Decisions: Studies of U.S. and Japanese Computer Users
By Joel Wilcox West, III

Product compatibility standards are an important aspect of buyer decisions and producer competition in information technology industries, and have also played a central role in federal anti-trust lawsuits against IBM, Intel and Microsoft.

The current study surveys personal computer users in two countries under pressure to switch to the dominant standard. It combines competing economic and psychological predictions in a logit model to see what best explains decisions between switching and remaining loyal.