Although existing laboratory research shows that software is often used inefficiently, relatively little is known about (a) how efficiently software is used in a real work environment and (b) the factors that influence the efficiency of individual users. The present research consists of an...

This dissertation is aiming to find out the impact of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act on insurance companies' survival. The events of interest are bankruptcy and acquisition, which are correlated and censor each other. A statistical survival analysis method is developed first and then applied to the...

A meta-analytic investigation was conducted to conceptually and quantitatively examine the effects of five individual (language ability), work (role ambiguity), organizational (organizational support), non-work (family support), and host-country factors (culture distance) on expatriate...

Control charts are regularly developed with the assumption that the process observations have an independent relationship. However, a common occurrence in certain industries is the collection of autocorrelated data. Two approaches are investigated that deal with this issue. The time series...

Nutrients are the number one water pollution problem for U.S. lakes, reservoirs, and ponds. Excessive nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, lead to eutrophication, a condition that can include low oxygen levels, noxious algal blooms, and fish kills. Since eutrophication is a condition that...

Individuals tend to make unrealistically optimistic self assessments about themselves and their future behavior. While little studied in marketing, unrealistic optimism by consumers may have negative consequences for both marketers and consumers. This dissertation proposes and explores a...

Applied economists and strategy scholars have examined a variety of firm-level factors that may explain the level and direction of firms' innovative effort and performance, including firms' profit incentives. Innovation at the firm level, however, should also depend heavily on the nature of the...

In this dissertation, I investigate how capabilities drive firm performance as an industry evolves. I show that in spite of significant research on firm capabilities, we do not understand whether technological capabilities continue to drive firm performance as an industry evolves or whether they...

This dissertation focuses on managerial decision making, and specifically explores conditions wherein managers may increase their propensity to escalate commitment towards a failing project. Escalation researchers (e.g. Schmidt and Calantone, 2002) have listed four classes of factors that may...