Escalation is generally defined as continued commitment of resources following negative feedback. Chapter 1 presents a literature review. In Chapter 2, a principal-agent model of asymmetric information uses escalation behavior to link managerial turnover and project outcomes. Managers escalate...

In recent years, cooperative buyer-supplier relationships, fashioned after the Japanese management style, have become popular in industrial markets. While buyers have explicitly benefited (from these relationships) in terms of better end-product performance and lower costs, it is not clear if...

It is proposed that, the extent to which organizational members are innovative will be positively related to their attitude towards innovation, quality of exchange with managers, and the extent to which managers exhibit transformational leadership. Further, it is proposed that subordinate...

Financial ratios have long been used for business analysis. Researchers have formulated business failure prediction models utilizing financial ratios. However, few failure prediction studies have focused on specific industries. This study focuses on use of financial ratios to discriminate...

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...

This dissertation attempted to answer two fundamental strategic questions: (1) why do existing firms enter new markets when they do? and (2) how is post entry performance affected by entry timing? Two submarkets of the computer industry, minicomputers and personal computers, formed the empirical...

This thesis examines the relationship between real flexibility and financial structure using detailed economic and financial data on firms in 17 manufacturing industries. I investigate the impact of real flexibility on firms' finance capacity, namely, their ability to obtain debt, borrow...

Despite acceptance and attractiveness of discount retailing, no comprehensive patronage model for discount retailing has been developed. The primary purpose of this research was to develop a general model of retail patronage and to empirically test the relationships proposed in the model in the...

The impact of information technology (IT) on firm performance has been repeatedly asserted and is now widely accepted. Firms have found opportunities to use IT in products and processes to reduce costs and increase product value, as well as to affect organizational effectiveness, through...

This study is divided into two parts. The first examines the long run common stock portfolio performance record of a large sample of individual investors for the period 1971-79. Different performance evaluation models are applied in this direction given the lack of academic consensus on the most...