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1. BECHKOFF, JENNIFER ROBERTA. Proprioception and the Truth Effect: A Case in Favor of the Cartesian Model of Information Processing.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2008, University of Cincinnati

► Repeatedly exposing people to claims increases the perceived truth of the claim… (more)

▼ Repeatedly exposing people to claims increases the perceived truth of the claim when it is seen at a later point in time, even if the claim is false. Proprioception has been shown to increase persuasion and subconsciously alter evaluations. Currently, there is no literature showing if and how it may affect truth judgments. The purpose of this study is to see if overt head movement proprioception (i.e., nodding and shaking) moderates the truth effect and to offer support to one of two competing theories - whether or not the truth effect is an encoding effect or a memory bias. Because proprioception occurs at the encoding phase, results showing that proprioception enhances truth judgments would lend support to the Spinozan model, which holds that the truth effect is an encoding-effect; results showing that proprioception has no effect on truth judgments would lend support to the Cartesian model, which holds that the truth effect is a retrieval effect. Three experiments were conducted to explore these issues, and thereby extend and refine knowledge in the areas of judgment and decision making.Subjects listened to a single exposure of a series of false statements through headphones while nodding or shaking (or remaining still). Subjects were asked to judge the veracity of the statements they heard as well as several statements they did not hear. Experiment 1 identified a large truth effect and a difference among motoric tasks for one set of false statements, but not for another. Experiment 2 set out to replicate the results of Experiment 1 using the statement set that revealed a difference among motoric tasks. Again, a large truth effect was identified, but this time, no differences were found among motoric tasks. Experiment 3 added a second exposure of the false statements, resulting in the largest truth effect ever recorded, but again, no difference among motoric tasks. Aggregated results cannot support the Spinozan (encoding effect) model, thus lending additional support to the Cartesian model. This is the first study to achieve the truth effect through auditory stimuli. Implications for marketing effectiveness are presented. Advisors/Committee Members: Kardes, Frank.

Subjects: Marketing

Keywords: Marketing; consumer psychology; truth effect; information processing; proprioception

2. Carter, Robert E. Reciprocal Spillover Effects: Why, When, and How Much.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2007, University of Cincinnati

► Introducing new products is both risky and critical to a company’s success.… (more)

Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

3. Coley, Linda Silver. Sustaining Competitive Advantage: Return on Leadership Competency (ROLC) in a Consumer-Driven Supply Network.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2004, University of Cincinnati

► This dissertation argued that if the firm has evolved to a supply-network… (more)

Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

4. Deval, Helene. The Role of Accessibility Experiences in Attitude Formation: Effects of On-Line versus Memory-Based Processing.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2010, University of Cincinnati

► Most models of judgment formation and decision making focus on the implications… (more)

▼ Most models of judgment formation and decision making focus on the implications of the information that comes most readily to mind. Such models fail to account for the subjective experiences that necessarily accompany thought processes. Past research has shown that accessibility experiences are informative in their own right and can qualify and even override the effect of thought content. Nevertheless, there is a conflict in the literature regarding the nature of the process involved in ease of processing effects. Schwarz (e.g., 1998, 2004) holds that ease of retrieval plays the role of a heuristic cue. Its effect should therefore disappear under high elaboration conditions. On the contrary, Petty and his colleagues (e.g., 2007, 2009) consider that ease effect occurs only when people attend their own thoughts and try to assess their validity. This process therefore requires a high level of elaboration to occur. There is empirical evidence for both conceptions of the role of ease of retrieval. It is therefore possible that ease of retrieval plays different roles depending on the conditions of attitude formation. This dissertation investigates the moderating role of processing style (memory-based versus on-line) in an attempt to resolve conflicting views and evidence in the literature. Based on differences in experimental design, it is hypothesized that ease of processing should drive attitude for memory-based judgments only under low elaboration conditions (the heuristic-cue hypothesis). On the contrary, for on-line judgments ease of retrieval should drive attitude when elaboration is high (the self-validation hypothesis). Three experiments provide strong support for the pivotal role of processing style in determining the impact of ease of processing in attitude formation. Experiment 1 establishes that ease of retrieval serves different roles for memory-based and on-line judgments and verifies the expected boundary conditions for the heuristic-cue hypothesis and the self-validation hypothesis. Experiment 2, while providing convergent evidence for the hypothesized moderating role of processing style, offers more insight into the self-validation hypothesis by investigating the mediating role of thought confidence. Finally, in experiment 3 we successfully replicate the results of both experiments 1 and 2, extending them to a different type of ease of processing: processing fluency. Advisors/Committee Members: Kardes, Frank.

Subjects: Marketing

Keywords: accessibility experiences; ease of retrieval; processing fluency; processing style; memory based vs. online judgment

5. Ewing, Douglas R. When Does Brand Matter? An Empirical Examination of the Roles of Attachment, Experience, and Identity within Consumer-Brand Relationships.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2010, University of Cincinnati

► The marketer may consider a brand to have unassailable importance, but the… (more)

▼ The marketer may consider a brand to have unassailable importance, but the consumer’s view also plays a significant role. Across three essays, this dissertation speaks to questions of when and why a brand may matter to consumers. It examines the phenomenon of consumers developing a sense of connection with a brand and compares it with material possession attachment. It also investigates the extent to which social identity plays a significant role in the appearance and durability of brand resonance, or the outcomes of feeling connected to a brand, sensing a community of brand users, and evangelizing its benefits. Essay 1 reviews brand attachment, material possession attachment, and related literature streams. This review leads to a set of hypotheses and a proposed design for testing them in a controlled setting. Essay 2 presents a Social Identity-based Model of Brand Resonance indicating that brand resonance is a self-sustaining process with factors such as alignment between brand meaning and a social identity combined with identity cultivation stage influencing a consumer’s tendency to do more than simply purchase a branded product. Essay 3 reports results of testing the predictions of Essay 1 and the conceptual model proposed in Essay 2 with two studies. Results of testing Essay 1 predictions clarify some similarities and differences between how consumers relate to brands versus possessions. Consumers tend to be more readily attached to brands but reserve a special significance for their most favorite possessions. Results of testing the model from Essay 2 illuminate the crucial role of social identity in determining when a brand matters. Experiences with and use of a brand influence whether a consumer will become an avid user by way of some specific internally and externally focused evaluations of it. This process from experience to appraisal to resonance is changed by how a brand is implicated in a social identity. Taken together, the results of comparing brand attachment and material possession attachment suggest that brands matter in predicting the nature of a consumer’s attachment to a particular object. Consumers may feel attached to brands but this special relationship may be fleeting. This suggests that brand attachment should not necessarily be a gauge of success for marketers. Further research is needed to ascertain how brand attachment and material possession attachment may influence one another in a more enduring and beneficial manner. Additional research is also needed with regards to the Social Identity-based Model of Brand Resonance. Results from the present research provide initial support for the model but additional testing with some respecification is necessary. The implications of this portion of the dissertation suggest that managers should look to alignment between their brand and a relevant social identity as a guide to brand building. As consumers develop within a social identity, the importance they place on brands as well as those they chose to use will vary. In short, brands matter to the extent they are socially useful to consumers. Advisors/Committee Members: Allen, Chris.

Subjects: Marketing

Keywords: Branding; Social Identity; Attachment; Brand Resonance

6. Khazanchi, Shalini. A “Social Exchange” Model of Creativity.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2005, University of Cincinnati

► In today’s business environment, creativity has become essential for gaining and sustaining… (more)

▼ In today’s business environment, creativity has become essential for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage for organizations. As such, researchers and practitioners alike have been interested in understanding ways to enhance creativity. In today’s highly interactive work environment social relationships have become an important feature of organizational life. Yet there has been little empirical research that focuses on the relational environment and its impact on creativity. To fill this gap in the literature, this study develops and empirically tests a social exchange model of creativity, proposing that employees’ perceptions of the relational environment (i.e., fairness and trust) will influence their social exchange relationships, which in turn will affect creativity-relevant behaviors, and ultimately, creativity. The model simultaneously proposes and tests these linkages for both organizational and supervisory levels. To test the model, the data were collected from 205 employees and their supervisors at a large chemical engineering plant, where creativity is an explicitly stated goal. Employees reported on their perceptions of organizational fairness and trust, supervisory fairness and trust, perceived organizational support, and leader member exchange. Supervisors provided information on employees’ creativity-relevant behaviors (information sharing, risk taking, social loafing, and political tactics), and creativity. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test the social exchange model of creativity. The results revealed support for several hypotheses. At the organizational level, employees’ perceptions of procedural and informational justice were significantly related to organizational trust, which in turn was significantly related to perceived organizational support. Furthermore, perceived organizational support was marginally related to two types of political tactics, exchange and upward appeal, which were not found to be related to creativity. At the supervisory level, employees’ perceptions of supervisory distributive justice and interpersonal justice were significantly, and supervisory informational justice was marginally, related to supervisory trust, which in turn was significantly related to leader member exchange. Finally, leader member exchange was significantly related to information sharing and social loafing, both of which were significantly related to creativity. Overall, these results show that a fair and trusting environment may be instrumental in facilitating creativity. Advisors/Committee Members: Masterson, Dr. Suzanne S.

Subjects: Business Administration, Management

Keywords: Creativity; Social Exchange; Fairness; Trust

7. KNAPP, JOSHUA R. Developing a Multi-Foci Perspective of Psychological Contract Theory.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2008, University of Cincinnati

► A “psychological contract” exists when an individual perceives that another party hasobligated… (more)

▼ A “psychological contract” exists when an individual perceives that another party hasobligated itself to a reciprocal exchange relationship with him/herself. Most researchers exploring this concept tend to focus solely on the exchange relationship existing between the individual and a unitary “employer” (e.g., Coyle-Shapiro & Conway, 2005; King & Bu, 2005; Raja, Johns, & Ntalianis, 2004; Rousseau, 2000; Rousseau, 2004; Sels, Janssens, & Van den Brande, 2004). However, it is important to note that psychological contract theory is not limited in scope to this specific exchange relationship. Rather, the concept can also be applied to the individual…#8482;s relationships with “…a client, customer, supplier, or any other interdependent party” (Italics added: Rousseau, 1995: 34). Unfortunately, the implications of this theoretical flexibility are largely unexplored in academic research. The central premise of this dissertation is that individuals have simultaneous distinct but related psychological contracts with various individuals and groups operating within an organizational context, and the purpose is to examine the psychological contract concept from this multi-foci perspective. I accomplish this purpose through a three-stage survey-based research study. The sample population for the study was the entire incoming class of freshman at the business college of a large mid-western university. In Stage One, I investigated the nature of psychological contracts in my sample. This exploratory stage: 1) theoretically justified my research sample through an examination of archival data, 2) determined the foci of student psychological contracts through open-ended qualitative survey questions, and 3) determined the content of student psychological contracts through open-ended qualitative survey questions. In Stage Two, I used a quantitative survey methodology. Exploratory factor analyses were done to develop new measures of psychological contract content, and structural equation modeling procedures were used to test hypotheses related to psychological contract dimensions. In Stage Three, I again used a quantitative survey methodology and structural equation modeling procedures to test hypotheses related to psychological contract breach. Overall, the described research program provides a substantial amount of evidence demonstrating that: a) individuals have simultaneous multiple psychological contracts, each with a different focus, and b) the dynamics associated with these psychological contracts change across foci. These results have important implications for both academic research and managerial practice. Advisors/Committee Members: Masterson, Suzanne.

Subjects: Management; Social psychology

Keywords: psychological contracts, multi-foci, social exchange, reciprocity

8. Kohne, Mary Lou. Effects of Self-affirmation and Individualistic-collectivistic Appeals on Open-Mindedness and Advertising Effectiveness.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2006, University of Cincinnati

► Consumers often resist information that conflicts with their preexisting attitudes or beliefs.… (more)

▼ Consumers often resist information that conflicts with their preexisting attitudes or beliefs. Resistance to advertising messages is common, even when the advertiser attempts to communicate important and novel messages. This research focuses on a new advertising technique called self-affirmation, which attempts to enhance consumers' self-perceptions to reduce resistance to persuasion. Two advertising experiments focusing on high-involvement product categories, including an on-line job search portal and hybrid/alternative fuel vehicles, explored the impact of self-affirmation on consumers’ open-mindedness to advertising messages and overall advertising effectiveness. This research offers the first demonstration of embedded self-affirmation working in the context of an advertising message. Results supported the hypotheses that affirmation affects open-mindedness and persuasion among certain groups of consumers. Individual difference variables of Need for Cognitive Closure and Individualism/Collectivism moderated the effects of self-affirmation on consumer reactions. Affirmation in advertising resulted in more open-mindedness only among individuals most likely to ordinarily rush to judgment (those high in Need for Cognitive Closure). It also influenced higher persuasion among individuals who a priori would be expected to be most resistant to advertising’s persuasive appeals—those high in Need for Cognitive Closure and who held low attitudes (high skepticism) about advertising in general. High individualists responded better to affirmations with an Individualistic appeal, while High Collectivists responded better to any type of affirmation (individualistic or collectivistic). Results support the usefulness of self-affirmation as a technique to reach consumers who are ordinarily highly resistant to advertising’s persuasive appeals. Self-affirmation in advertising may encourage consumers to process information in a more objective manner. Advisors/Committee Members: Kardes, Dr. Frank R.

Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

Keywords: Self-Affirmation; Advertising; Persuasion; Open-Mindedness

9. Krishnan Palghat, Vijaykumar. Hearing, Remembering, and Branding: Guidelines for Creating Sonic Logos.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2009, University of Cincinnati

► Sonic Branding is the strategic use of sound to create an authentic… (more)

▼ Sonic Branding is the strategic use of sound to create an authentic auditory identity for the brand. Conventional applications of sound in branding are tactical and lean on classical conditioning theory by repetitive pairing of sound and brand to create desired associations. In contrast, sonic branding leans on processing fluency theory leveraging sound as information in and of itself. Often such auditory information is nonverbal and nonlinguistic. Sonic logos are good examples illustrating this phenomenon. A sonic logo, “sogo,” the auditory analog of a visual logo, is a typical sonic branding device. Sogos are short melodies not lasting more than six seconds. Some interesting examples are the 5-tone Intel sogo, windows vista’s 4-tone start-up chime and NBC’s 3-tone sogo. Sogos vary in their design characteristics. They may comprise different number of tones. They may have an ascending pattern (Windows Vista), descending pattern (windows XP) or a zigzagging contour (Intel). A sogo may be easier to remember because it comprises chunks (Miller 1956) of similar tones. Thus, number of tones they comprise, their contour and their chunkability may characterize Sogos. Per logo literature (Henderson and Cote 1998), good sogos should engender favorable consumer responses on recognition, affect, and familiarity dimensions. For instance, sogos with fewer tones should be easier to remember; thus obtain high true recognition on a subsequent encounter. On the other hand, because they are easier to process, they may engender illusions of familiarity (Whittlesea 1993) leading to high false recognition. Sogos with a zigzagging contour may be more difficult to recall but may be perceived novel and so liked more. In other words, consumers experience differing levels of ease in processing sogos based on the design characteristics. This subjective experience of ease of processing (Reber, Wurtz and Zimmerman 2004; Whittlesea 1993; Janiszewski and Meyvis 2001; Winkielman et al 2003) incoming auditory information is misattributed to the judgment at hand: Familiarity (Whittlesea 1993), Positive affect (Reber, Winkielman and Schwarz 1998; Winkielman and Cacioppo 2001), judgments of truth (Reber and Schwarz 1999) and brand Evaluation (Lee and Labroo 2004). This research explores the systematic influence of three design characteristics of sogos: number of tones, contour, and chunkability across five studies on response dimensions. Overall, these studies evidence processing fluency mediation of these influences. Results show that several response dimensions vary systematically with the sogo design characteristics, thus providing for guidelines. Leader brands would want a high true recognition and a low false recognition; brands in a low involvement product segment (e.g., bread) could profit from high false recognition and illusions of familiarity. Huge investments are made to create and air auditory branding stimuli; rights for use of popular songs in commercial jingles may top $500,000 such as for “stand by me,” deployed by Citibank, (Krasilovsky and Shemel 2007). In conclusion, given that sogos are branding devices, guidelines from this research should reduce the precarious dependence of marketers on musicians (Bruner 1990), and provide for greater precision over sonic branding. Advisors/Committee Members: Kellaris, Dr. James.

Subjects: Behaviorial sciences; Marketing; Music; Psychology

Keywords: Sonic branding; Sonic logo; Sogo; Auditory processing fluency; Auditory identity; not a jingle

10. LIU, YONG. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH PRICE COMMITMENT POLICIES.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2005, University of Cincinnati

► We examine the behavior of a manufacturer and a retailer in decentralized… (more)

▼ We examine the behavior of a manufacturer and a retailer in decentralized supply chains under price-dependent demand. We investigate the use of several price-commitment policies as coordination mechanisms. The first policy we examine is a retailer’s fixed markup (RFM) policy where the retailer commits to a fixed price markup over wholesale price to determine her retail price. The second is a price protection policy where the manufacturer agrees to reimburse the retailer for decreases in the wholesale price. In our first paper we examine the effect of RFM on individual agents’ profits and supply chain performance under single period, stochastic demand. Our focus here is on exogenously determined markup values and linear additive demand forms. We prove the existence of optimal pricing and replenishment policies. We also find that RFM can result in significantly greater profit for the supply chain than the price-only contract and leads to Pareto-improving solutions. The second paper extends our analysis by examining the RFM policy under both multiplicative and linear additive demand forms. We obtain closed-form solutions for both RFM and price-only policies and analytically prove that Pareto-improving solutions are not possible under iso-price-elastic, multiplicative demand. We also consider the effect of pricing power in the supply chain by varying who determines the retail price markup. Our results reveal that the effect of retailer ex-ante markup commitment is heavily dependent on both the nature of the demand function and the relative pricing power of different players in the supply chain. The final paper in this dissertation investigates a multi-period, deterministic demand setting. We compare price commitments made by both the retailer and the supplier. RFM represents the retailer’s price commitment and price protection is a form of manufacturer price commitment. We prove the existence of unique, optimal pricing and ordering solutions for all policies considered. We also demonstrate that the retailer may carry inventory under both price-only and RFM settings even though demand is deterministic and no economies of scale are considered. Price protection is shown to resolve the gaming that leads to inventory, but at the expense of channel performance. Advisors/Committee Members: Fry, Dr. Michael.

Subjects: Business Administration, Management

Keywords: supply chain management, inventory models, price-dependent demand, coordination, price commitment, pricing power, game theory

11. Meyer, Tracy Hindman. Experience-Based Aspects of Shopping Attitudes: The Moderating Roles of Norms and Loyalty.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2005, University of Cincinnati

► Aspects of the act of shopping contribute to re-patronization attitudes. These attitudes… (more)

▼ Aspects of the act of shopping contribute to re-patronization attitudes. These attitudes are affected by both positive and negative shopping specific events. Bitner and Hubbert (1994) referred to the discrete events that occur while shopping at a store as “moments of truth” that lead to material shifts in attitudes toward the store. This dissertation focuses not on these highly influential events, but rather on negatively perceived aspects of the familiar shopping experience, such as long check out lines or the need for an out-of-stock product. Lazarus (1984; 1995) refers to these minor stress-producing events as “hassles.” In this dissertation, the persuasive impact of a hassling shopping episode is shown to depend on norms and loyalty. The theory of norms states that normative expectations guide cognitive reactions to events (Kahneman and Miller, 1986). What appears typical or normal to one shopper will vary based on depth of category knowledge, experience, and involvement (Woodruff, Cadotte, and Jenkins, 1983). In Study 1, an 11-item zone of indifference measure was developed to capture individual differences in perceived discount store category norms. In accordance with theory, Study 1 demonstrated that the lower bound of the zone of indifference and optimism are positively related and the width of the measure grows as breadth and depth of experience with the store category increases. In Study 2, the zone of indifference was shown to differentially affect consumers’ responses only when consumers were not motivated by high (vs. low)loyalty to engage in biased processing. Consistent with Oliver’s (1999) definition of loyalty, the highly loyal consumer was found to have a more consistent attitude toward refrequenting the store despite situational influences. An analysis of thoughts revealed that the type of thoughts generated varied by loyalty to the store. The high (vs. low) loyalty consumer used attitude stabilizing thoughts and was less likely to dwell on the actual events encountered during the shopping experience. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of how consumers, who have both experience and familiarity with the store environment, integrate negative shopping experiences into attitudes about repatronizing the store. Advisors/Committee Members: Machleit, Dr. Karen A.

Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

Keywords: Loyalty; Hassles; Shopping Behavior; Norms

12. Miller, Felicia Maddox. What Do Brands Mean? A Series of Three Essays That Explore the Nature of Meaning for Well-known Brands.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2006, University of Cincinnati

► Brand meaning has been theoretically linked to brand equity and long-term brand… (more)

Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

Keywords: meaning; brand meaning; brands; brand management; familiar brands

13. Niculescu, Mihai. Towards a Unified Treatment of Risk and Uncertainty in Choice Research.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2009, University of Cincinnati

► This dissertation investigates substantive questions developed from Kahneman and Tversky's behavioral choice… (more)

▼ This dissertation investigates substantive questions developed from Kahneman and Tversky's behavioral choice theory. Behavioral choice theory postulates systematic departures from economically rational behavior when consumers face choices described incompletely or probabilistically. Previous research relies nearly exclusively on monetary options, which are intrinsically unidimensional and exhibit monotone utility. These special properties are likely to influence the frequency of preference reversals and other so-called non-rational behaviors in human decision-making. Four contributions emerge from this research. First, I extend the idea of risky choices from monetary to non-monetary options and build a theoretical framework with a foundation in prospect theory and reason-based choice. Second, I test the effect of multidimensional vs. unidimensional non-monetary options on choice focusing on both within- and between-dimensional risk. Third, I examine loss aversion across segments and relate an aggregation fallacy to contradictory results in the literature. Fourth, I suggest an extension of Kahneman and Tversky's behavioral choice theory by incorporating options with missing information. I use three discrete choice experiments to generate decision schema by segments of individuals sharing similar utility functions. Latent class discrete-choice models isolate the direction and magnitude of value for each attribute (level) of a set of multi-attribute options. They do so in choice domains involving both monetary and non-monetary attributes and operate effectively at both the aggregate and segment levels. As such, they support the rigorous design of experiments that circumvent the need to rely on monetary gambles. Study 1 investigates the influence of monetary (vs. non-monetary) goals on multidimensional risky choice when full information on reference points is available to an individual. Findings support goal-driven behavior, but reveal only limited evidence to support predictions from prospect theory. Findings also suggest that loss aversion is goal-dependent; i.e., loss aversion is higher for attributes that match consumer goals than for those that do not. Furthermore, the effect is more pronounced for high (vs. low) need for cognitive closure individuals. Study 2 tests the effect of present (vs. absent) reference points on risky multidimensional choice. Exogenously supplied reference points may help a consumer assess alternatives by offering an explicit demarcation between gains and losses. This baseline may also reduce perceived risk. Results indicate higher partworth utility for levels of an attribute when a reference point is provided for that attribute than when it is not. The study also finds that individuals exhibit varying levels of loss aversion for monetary options but contrary to prospect theory no significant loss aversion for non-monetary options. Similar to study 1, study 2 only partially corroborates expectations from prospect theory. Study 3 extends the application of prospect theory to choice alternatives characterized by missing information. Missing information means that neither outcome values nor outcome probabilities are known. Results suggest that the information context in which choices are made induces a meta-order on preference judgments: risk ≻ uncertain ≻ absent. Overall, the results reported here suggest that the literature – citing findings based uniquely on choices between monetary options – may not hold for non-monetary options and that new behavioral theory is needed to explain risky multidimensional choice. Advisors/Committee Members: Curry, David J.

Subjects: Marketing

Keywords: prospect theory; discrete choice experiments; omission neglect; reason-based choice; loss aversion

14. Palmer, Jacquelyn Wright. Innovative Behavior of Frontline Employees in the Public Sector.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2006, University of Cincinnati

► This study developed and tested an interactive model of innovative behavior of… (more)

▼ This study developed and tested an interactive model of innovative behavior of frontline employees in the public sector. Three gaps in innovation research have given rise to this study: the need for contextualization, the need for studies that include the frontline employee, and the need for studies that examine the interactions of factors that influence individual level innovative behavior. In the study of innovation, the notion of context is an under-examined contingency. The context of interest in this study is the public sector, as it is generally believed that the public sector differs from the private sector in key ways that may influence the extent of innovative behavior, including the difference in rewards for innovation available for public sector employees and the overabundance of rules and procedures that influence an individual’s ability to be adaptable and innovative. Innovation research in the public sector has been biased toward the organization level, and individual innovative behavior has received minor attention despite the major practical implications of individual innovative behavior for organization innovation. Even when the individual level has been addressed in innovation research, frontline employees have often been overlooked, though they are in a prime position to recognize opportunities for innovation. Although innovative researchers are increasingly recognizing the merits of an interactive approach, the innovation literature could profit from more research that examines how factors at multiple levels combine to influence innovative behavior. This study examined the interaction of factors at the individual and organization level that influence innovative behavior of frontline employees in the public sector. In contrast to studies in the private sector, this study did not find a relationship between creative problem solving style and innovative behavior. The study concludes with a discussion of the contextual differences in the public sector that may explain this difference. Advisors/Committee Members: Welsh, Dr. M Ann.

Subjects: Business Administration, Management

Keywords: public sector; innovation; frontline employees

15. PFEIFFER, BRUCE E. Omission Detection and Inferential Adjustment.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2008, University of Cincinnati

► Omission neglect refers to insensitivity to missing or unknown information. Omission detection… (more)

▼ Omission neglect refers to insensitivity to missing or unknown information. Omission detection occurs once an omission reaches the threshold of awareness. Research in this area has demonstrated that consumers typically rely heavily on the information provided, and neglect omitted information, resulting in inappropriately extreme and confidently held judgments. Three experiments have been designed investigating the underlying processes of how consumers make inferences about omitted attributes. Two plausible explanations are investigated: anchoring and adjustment versus discounting. Adjustment refers to revising or updating an opinion, whereas discounting refers to not using information that is perceived to be non-diagnostic. In Experiment 1, the underlying process is investigated using a point vs. range procedure. Salience of the omitted attribute is manipulated to elicit omission detection and participants are asked to provide either a point estimate or range estimates of the cost of the omitted attribute. Comparisons of the point and range estimates support an anchoring and adjustment explanation, but do not eliminate a discounting explanation. Experiment 2 further investigates the processing differences utilizing a cognitive load manipulation. The results suggest an anchoring and adjustment mechanism for people low in need for cognitive closure and a discounting mechanism for people high in need for cognitive closure. Experiment 3 combines the two procedures used in Experiments 1 and 2 to more clearly differentiate the underlying process and investigates additional individual differences. The results suggests that people who are low in need for cognitive closure, people who are low self-monitors, and people who are high maximizers are more likely to utilize an anchoring and adjustment process. Conversely, people who are high in need for cognitive closure, people who are high self-monitors, and people who are low maximizers are more likely to be discounting. These experiments suggest that there are two possible underlying mechanisms for forming inferential judgments and that the type of mechanism used depends on individual trait differences and possibly situational variables. This research adds to the growing body of omission neglect research by helping to explain the underlying mechanisms in the formation of inferential judgments of omitted attribute information once an omission is detected. Advisors/Committee Members: Kardes, Frank.

Subjects: Marketing; Psychology

Keywords: omission; neglect; detection; inference; missing; information; processing

16. Schenkel, Mark T. New Enterprise Opportunity Recognition: Toward a Theory of Entrepreneurial Dynamism.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2005, University of Cincinnati

► Entrepreneurial opportunities are the “fuel” for economic progress. Accordingly, a key question… (more)

▼ Entrepreneurial opportunities are the “fuel” for economic progress. Accordingly, a key question posed by researchers and practitioners alike focuses on why some individuals, but not others, recognize and choose to exploit entrepreneurial opportunity (Venkataraman, 1997). Despite both the theoretical and practical importance of this phenomenon, we know little about the underlying entrepreneurial thought processes that allow opportunities to manifest themselves as credible across individuals in part because researchers have done little to understand their complexity (Krueger, 2003). This dissertation seeks to extend existing theory on why it is that some individuals come to recognize and exploit economic opportunities by directly examining the theoretical premise that entrepreneurial thinking is both unique, as well as more complex than previous efforts have proposed. More specifically, this research draws on extant theory to investigate whether three broad types of capital – general knowledge, self-knowledge and cognitive motivation – make up a unique, multidimensional resource base that contributes to the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunity. Hypotheses related to the tacit and explicit knowledge sources employed, self-related knowledge, and the influence of individual motivations on nascent entrepreneurial activity and performance-related outcomes are developed and tested. Data were obtained from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) database, a longitudinal panel survey identifying a sample of nascent entrepreneurs within the United States. Hypotheses were tested and inferences derived through descriptive statistics, logistic and multivariate regression techniques appropriate for examining the central research questions guiding this project. Findings provide robust support for the intuitive and commonly held yet sparsely tested presumption that entrepreneurs can and do think differently than non-entrepreneurs. The results also suggest, however, that while each of these types of factors is generally important to understanding the recognition of and decision to exploit entrepreneurial opportunity, their influence on these processes may vary based upon the specific nature of the particular opportunity. Implications for practitioners and future research directions are discussed. Advisors/Committee Members: Matthews, Dr. Charles H.

Subjects: Business Administration, Management

Keywords: opportunity recognition; new enterprise creation; cognition; entrepreneurship

17. Schertzer, Susan M. Brakers. The Influence of Quality on Business-to-Business (B2B) Professional Service Relationships.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2006, University of Cincinnati

► The topics of “service” and “relationship” pervade both the academic and popular… (more)

▼ The topics of “service” and “relationship” pervade both the academic and popular business press. Despite their popularity, empirical research in these areas has run on tracks that seldom intersect. Service research has been conducted predominantly in a consumer context, while most business-to-business (B2B) buyer-seller relationship research has involved tangible goods. I begin to bridge this gap in current knowledge by studying professional service relationships in the business-to-business context. Using longitudinal data gathered over 5 years in a marketing research context, I examine the relationship of Quality with Satisfaction, Perceived Value and Retention (both intention to engage in future transactions and actual repeat transactions). First, the quality measures are analyzed and factored into five distinct dimensions. The five dimensions of quality derived in this study suggest support for the emerging multi-level models of quality. As defined, these five dimensions blend the two dominant conceptualizations of quality: the categorizations of the Nordic Model and the descriptive dimensions of SERVQUAL. Next, the influence of Quality on Satisfaction, Perceived Value and Behavioral Intentions and the combined influence of all of these variables on Behavioral Intentions are confirmed. Of note, the image of specific industry knowledge appears to be particularly influential. Within the professional services context, where the service is difficult for the non-professional to really evaluate, this is an important finding. This is consistent with research in consumer behavior that suggests that image influences behavioral intentions but specifically pinpoints the aspect of image that profession service providers should clearly communicate. It supports the importance of branding in the B2B marketplace. Finally, two specific questions germane to both academics and practitioners are explored. First, do the attributes of service quality that influence perceptions of value, satisfaction and behavioral intent differ between those customers that actually return and those who do not return? Second, does the influence of service quality on satisfaction, perceived value and behavioral intentions differ as customers gain experience and a relationship develops? Insights gleaned from this research contribute to our understanding of the drivers of retention and relationship dynamics in a B2B professional services context and set an agenda for future inquiry. Advisors/Committee Members: Dwyer, Dr. Robert F.

Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

Keywords: B2B relationships; professional services; quality

18. SHEEP, MATHEW L. WHEN CATEGORIES COLLIDE: A DISCURSIVE PSYCHOLOGY APPROACH TO THE ELASTICITY OF MULTIPLE IDENTITIES.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2006, University of Cincinnati

► This dissertation presents an alternative approach to investigate how actors construct social… (more)

Keywords: organizational identity, identification, legitimacy, poststructuralism, conversation analysis, membership categorization, discursive psychology

19. SMITH, BRETT R. ENTREPRENEURIAL TEAM FORMATION: THE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL INTENSITY AND DECISION MAKING ON ORGANIZATIONAL EMERGENCE.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2007, University of Cincinnati

► This dissertation offers a lens to understand the critical processes of organizational… (more)

▼ This dissertation offers a lens to understand the critical processes of organizational emergence by examining the network processes and outcomes in the development of early stage entrepreneurial founding teams. In addition, this dissertation explores the important boundary condition of high technology and its effect on the early stage network processes. Using a mixed methodology approach, this dissertation explores the question of how founders construct organizations. In the quantitative section, panel data is used to explore how the level of technological intensity affects the organizational demography and social network structure of the founding team. Results from logistic regression show the level of technology affects the motives through which founders constructed organizations. Increasing levels of technology are associated with greater demographic diversity and lower density social networks. These findings highlight the role of technological intensity as an important antecedent to organizational demography and social network structure. In the qualitative section, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 early stage entrepreneurs and team members to explore how the decision making process affects the construction of organizations. Through this analysis, a series of three grounded conceptual models are developed to explain the mutual decision making process of entrepreneurial team formation: 1.) the first model highlights the role of individual level factors (e.g., attitude towards networking) and situational factors (e.g., geography) in the identification and screening processes of decision making; 2.) the second conceptual model explores the opportunity costs of pursuing different search processes in the identification of team members; and 3.) the third model identifies the overall marginal benefits of different search processes after accounting for both the benefits and costs of each search process. Taken together, these models describe how the decision making process affects organizational emergence. Advisors/Committee Members: Kreiner, Dr. Glen.

Subjects: Business Administration, Management

Keywords: entrepreneurial teams; entrepreneurship; organizational emergence; social networks; demography; high technology

20. White, Denise L. Operational Planning and Scheduling in the Outpatient Clinic Environment.

Degree: PhD, Business Administration : Business Administration, 2010, University of Cincinnati

► Many researchers have explored the outpatient clinic environment. However, few have integrated… (more)

▼ Many researchers have explored the outpatient clinic environment. However, few have integrated demand management, resource policies, and process design. Through a series of three related research efforts, this dissertation investigates the operational influence of demand and capacity management while considering patient flow. The first research effort develops an integrated view of demand and capacity management decisions as variations in patient flow are modeled. The study examines the interactions between patient appointment policies and capacity allocation policies (i.e., the number of available exam rooms). The second effort evaluates the clinic response to queue disciplines (FCFS, SPT, and appointment time) and appointment scheduling policies as patient arrival times deviate from the schedule and patients fail to arrive for their appointment (no-shows). By evaluating various levels of arrival variability and no-shows, the robustness of policy decisions in the outpatient environment is assessed. The third study examines the appropriate deployment of labor resources that are able to substitute for the physician in an outpatient clinic. Two deployment methods are evaluated using measures of operations performance, patient waiting, and clinic profits. The results of this research accentuate the value of integrated analysis of demand and capacity management decisions with a focus on patient flow. The development of appointment scheduling policies should consider variability of the physician service times and the patient flow through the system as both elements influence policy selection. When considering the effect of operations management decisions on both clinic and patient performance measures, this research demonstrates that the results of managerial decisions can and often do move in different directions. Some decisions require a trade-off between operations and the patient, while others benefit (or harm) both. This research demonstrates that excluding patient flow analysis from research efforts reduces the scope of activities that can be analyzed and creates opportunities for erroneous decisions. Advisors/Committee Members: Froehle, Craig.

Subjects: Operations research

Keywords: Scheduling; Capacity Management; Demand Management; Patient Flow; Healthcare