The first chapter explores the determinants of people's decisions to take 401(k) loans. We model factors that rationally would induce people to borrow from their pension plans, and we explain why people do not often use 401(k) loans to replace their more expensive credit card debt. Next we test...

Building on A Behavioral Theory of the Firm and on A Network Theory of Social Capital, this dissertation develops a theory that serves as the basis to understand what guides firm search, particularly, why ex ante alternative assessment drives exploration by focusing the attention of the firm on...

Maintenance of locomotives is the main function of Bellville Locomotive Traction Depot in the Western Cape. Therefore, it is important to have a sound maintenance plan in place, to prevent a negative impact on the availability and reliability of locomotive supply for hauling power to train...

The retail and distribution industry in Botswana's deregulated economy is one of the largest and most difficult sectors in which to operate, mainly because of levels of competition amongst Botswana companies and the global competitive industry, in general. Hill (2000:539) postulates that...

Organizational identification has been regarded as a new control strategy for modem organizations. High levels of organizational members' identification result in various benefits to organizational performance.Among organizational theorists there exists a strong school of thought, which sees...

Advisor: Susan Vowels April 23, 2007

It is believed that the critical next step from examinations of operations and the environment is the study of sustainability and supply chains (Linton, Klassen, and Jayaraman (2007)). Environmental quality and preservation as well as meeting the stress of emission reductions is rapidly becoming...

Over the study period of 1995 to 2006, performance disparities are reported between mutual funds engaged in socially responsible investing (SRI funds) and non-SRI funds. After introducing a social factor and firm specific risk variables, an extension to the Fama-French-Carhart four-factor model...

This study reexamines the Asian stock market contagion by employing a dynamic multivariate GARCH model. Based on a commonly held definition, contagion is defined as a significant increase in comovements between asset returns across markets. By analyzing the correlation coefficient series, this...

This dissertation consists of three essays on corporate pension plan underfunding and securities valuation. The first essay presents evidence that sell-side stock analysts systematically underreact to pension underfunding information when they forecast firm earnings and such underreaction is...