This research explores the economic rationale behind the increasing use of software rentals in the software industry in North America. The first part uses a two period game theoretic model to analyze a monopoly's pricing strategy. The monopoly produces two versions of the software, one in each...

This dissertation deals with two important research problems in computer networks: resource allocation and caching. It consists of three essays in the broad research areas mentioned above. Essay 1 presents a pricing and allocation mechanism for peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. A P2P system can be...

This study empirically examined relationships between performance and the international strategy of the firm in multidomestic and global industries. The performance measures used were expert rating, sales growth, return on assets, return on sales, sales to asset ratio, return on equity and stock...

The purpose of this study was to develop a hotel performance model using structural equation modeling. All hotel firms with a SIC code of 70, with available data for 1996, were used. A total of 106 hotel, hotel and gaming, and hotel conglomerates were included in this study. A model was proposed...

The first essay examines Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing systems by incorporating the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model from operations research into a product market duopoly. We consider a two-stage game in which firms first simultaneously decide whether or not to invest in setup cost...

In this thesis, we investigate the effects of Information Technology (IT) and the Internet on business environments from three perspectives: the catalyst function of IT and the Internet in developing new business models, the enabler role of these technologies for emerging digital marketplaces,...

Information Technology has become integral to organizations' pursuit to achieve a competitive edge in an interconnected environment. The information technology resources of organizations have become targets of perpetrators, who seek gains from causing damage to information resources of...

This study attempted to assess a very basic yet still unresolved relationship between personal sales representatives and sales effectiveness. Using the arena of pharmaceutical sales this study asks the essential question, are personal sales representatives effective in increasing sales? What is...

This thesis consists of two essays analyzing related topics. The first essay investigates the role of search cost in electronic markets. It is the first to introduce product specificity to a search model which allows us to study both short term and long term effects of reducing search cost. It...

This research combines the turnaround, industrial organization economics, and resource based theory, and decline literatures to create a framework for investigating the relationship between external and internal changes that cause declines in business organizations. The relationship between the...