Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies /Sport Administration

Starting from the 2017-18 season, the NBA league, initiated jersey sponsorship. While jersey sponsorship has been a popular marketing strategy in European professional sports leagues, it is relatively a new approach in the U.S. Perspectives from the academic and practical business fields, questioned whether this new marketing strategy could be effective in the U.S sports business field. Thus, the current study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of NBA jersey sponsorship in terms of sponsor recognition, sponsor image, sponsor attitude and purchase intention toward the sponsor brand. The research was a 2 (game exposure: pre- vs. post-tests) x 3 (game quality: close vs. one-sided vs. control groups) within-between factorial design. Total of 97 college students in a mid-size university of Ohio were participated in the research. They were assigned into one of the three groups—close game, one-sided game, and control group and completed pre- and post-test questionnaires. The results provided empirical evidence that sponsor recognition, sponsor image and sponsor attitude positively changed after watching the game. Additionally, sponsor image, sponsor attitude, and purchase intention increased more with participants who watched a close game than those who watched a one-sided game. This implied that the NBA jersey sponsorship was effective and positively change spectators' sponsor recognition, sponsor image, sponsor attitude and purchase intention toward the sponsor. The research findings could be used as an important indicator for researchers and practitioners a guideline that game quality could be a significant factor to consider when assessing jersey sponsorship effectiveness.

Committee: Jiesun Lucy Lee Dr. (Committee Chair); Sungho Cho Dr. (Committee Member); David Tobar Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sports Management

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Psychology/Clinical

This study contributes to research on Alcoholics Anonymous, a mutual help organization that is concerned with helping individuals who identify as alcoholics to maintain sobriety through a spiritually-based 12-step program. Specifically, 134 AA members, termed in this dissertation as “sponsees,” reported on relational spiritual processes between them and their current sponsor, including sanctification, spiritual intimacy, spiritual mediation, and spiritual one-upmanship. Sponsorship alliance was assessed as a dependent variable and mediator. Criterion variables included abstinence self-efficacy, craving for/obsessions with alcohol (termed “subjective experiences”), individual spiritual well-being, and emotion regulation skills. Hypotheses were partially supported. Greater sanctification, spiritual intimacy, and spiritual mediation were linked to stronger sponsorship alliance. Greater sanctification and spiritual mediation were uniquely tied to higher levels of spiritual well-being, and greater spiritual one-upmanship to lower abstinence self-efficacy after controlling for relevant demographic variables. Sponsees who endorsed a stronger sponsorship alliance also reported higher abstinence self-efficacy and spiritual well-being based on bivariate correlations and regression analyses. Additionally, the sponsorship alliance partially mediated the relationship between spiritual mediation and spiritual well-being. Bootstrapping was used for atemporal mediation analyses. The findings from the present study suggest that the three positive relational spiritual processes provide unique windows into how spirituality exists in and is tied to strength of the sponsorship bond. Spiritual one-upmanship may also be a risk factor for building abstinence self-efficacy. Sponsorship alliance could play a mediating role in a sponsee's spiritual well-being goals. Implications of this study will be discussed.

Committee: Annette Mahoney Ph.D. (Advisor); Joshua Grubbs Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dara Musher-Eizenman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Conor McLaughlin Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Business, Miami University, 2006, School of Business Administration - Marketing

This paper investigates the costs and benefits of NASCAR sponsorship. Sports sponsorship is increasing in popularity as marketers attempt to build more personal relationships with consumers. NASCAR is one of the most lucrative sponsorship venues in professional sports and now claims seventy-five million fans and over one hundred FORTUNE 500 companies as sponsors. This paper investigates sponsorships as well as the fan base targeted by these marketing efforts. Research indicates that NASCAR fans are typically more brand loyal than the average consumer, exhibiting particular loyalty to NASCAR sponsors. The paper further explains who composes the NASCAR fan base. Finally, the paper relates this information to the ultimate goal of a firm: increase shareholder value. Consequently, the paper proposes the use of an event study to measure the impact of NASCAR sponsorship upon stock price of sponsoring companies.

Committee: Timothy Greenlee (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

Doctor of Organization Development & Change (D.O.D.C.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Organization Development

This research explored the sustainability of collaborative networks and specifically the role of transparency. This deductive thematic analysis study focused on a midsized rustbelt city's citywide governing strategic change collaborative network that began sometime in 2010 and spawned sixteen individual collaborative networks by the end of 2012. Each of these seventeen collaborative networks were co-led by leaders, called champions, around their passion for the change they were tasked to create. The citywide governing strategic change network was formed to bring together citizen and government leaders to collaboratively decide what could be done to make this midsized rustbelt city better for the citizens and surrounding regional communities. Initially, the effort was governed by the founding key city executive and four citizen leaders and grew to over two thousand members and thirty-nine champion leaders. A disruption in commitment was caused by the change in executive sponsorship when the foundational key city executive's term ended. The successive key city executive was not supportive. This provides a secondary look at how a change in executive sponsorship affects commitment. There were also two outside paid members, a facilitator and me as a coordinator. Literature on collaborative networks, collaborative governance, and transparency has increased recently. Leading to Parung & Bititci's (2008) theoretical framework developed to measure the sustainability of a collaborative network. This framework includes a construct for the health of a collaborative network which has five characteristics, trust, commitment, coordination, communication quality, and joint problem solving. According to research by Schnackenberg et al., (2021), transparency is relatively new and has a variety of constructs not necessarily related other than the fact that trust is a common characteristic. Schnackenberg et al. (2021) also included quality information in their transparency (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeanelle Sears Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Neil Baird Ph.D. (Other); Steven Cady Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jane Wheeler Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Epistemology; Mass Communications; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Pedagogy; Public Administration; Social Research; Sustainability

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies /Sport Administration

Brand recall is a significant indicator used to evaluate the effectiveness of sponsorships because it pertains to individuals' capacity to remember and establish a connection between sponsors' brands and the sports program. This study explores the value of sponsorship through brand recall, focusing on Bowling Green State University (BGSU) Athletics. This research examines the relationship between fan involvement, brand recall, and purchase intentions. The objectives were to analyze how fan involvement with BGSU Athletics influences attitudes toward the program and sponsors, to assess if a positive attitude toward sponsors influences purchase intentions, and to investigate the influence of fan involvement on brand recall of sponsors. A quantitative research design was employed, utilizing a structured questionnaire to collect data from 249 participants who were BGSU athletics fans and attendees of various sporting events. The data analysis was conducted using bivariate correlation and multivariate analysis through IBM SPSS. Pie charts and bar charts were used to display the descriptive statistics. The findings revealed a positive relationship between the extent of fan involvement in BGSU Athletics and attitude towards sponsors. Additionally, the study found that a positive attitude towards sponsors among BGSU Athletics fans significantly influences their purchase intentions. However, a negative relationship was observed between fan involvement and brand recall of sponsors, suggesting that highly involved fans may focus more on the event itself rather than sponsors advertisements. These results contribute to the understanding of sponsorship dynamics in collegiate athletics and provide practical insights for stakeholders aiming to enhance the value of sponsorship investments

Committee: Ray Schneider (Committee Member); Sungho Cho (Committee Chair) Subjects: Sports Management

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2023, History

This project examines the life, career, and controversies surrounding Mexican playwright Rodolfo Usigli and his play El gesticulador, a tragicomedy that satirized the hypocrisies of rule in Mexico following the revolution of 1910. Usigli emerged as one of the leading, if controversial, voices within Mexican theater during the 1930s and 1940s, writing politically critical plays based in his particular vision for a national theater tradition in Mexico. The height of the playwright's dramaturgical output corresponded with an elite class in the process of consolidating an institutionalized, “official” culture, homogenized revolutionary history, and political system dominated by an effectively single-party state. Censored for almost a decade, Usigli's El gesticulador premiered on the stage of Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes under high praise and intense scandal, both reflecting and contributing to renewed debates concerning Mexico's political system, freedom of expression, and the changing “institutional” revolution. Following the play's staging, Usigli would ultimately go on to act as a coopted intellectual in the service of the state. Thus, I track Usigli's evolution alongside that of the single-party state, arguing that the playwright acts as an insightful example of the power dynamics informing the relationships between political and cultural elites in postrevolutionary Mexico.

Committee: Elena Albarrán (Advisor); José Amador (Committee Member); Andrew Offenburger (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Latin American History; Theater History

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

Organizations including institutions of higher education recognize the importance of increasing gender diversity, equity, and inclusion in leadership ranks among women, especially if they want to be top competitors in their industries. Gender diversity increases collaboration, innovation, varied perspectives, increased staff retention and buy-in for new employees determining if they want to work for an organization in question, and a more comprehensive talent pool (People Management, 2021). Previous strategies used to increase gender diversity in leadership have included providing professional development or mentorship opportunities for all women; however, these strategies fail to take into account an intersectional lens and the various ways in which non-white women are affected by discrimination and inequity. “White women have it both ways, they may be may victimized by sexism, but racism enables them to act as exploiters to Black people” (bell hooks,1984 as cited in Kilpatrick, 2020, para. 2). Race and gender in particular create additional barriers to Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC) and their advancement. “White female racism undermines the feminist struggle (bell hooks, 1984 as cited in Kilpatrick, 2020, para. 2)”, further alienating or distancing BIWOC in organizations. Given the additional barriers BIWOC confront, what can organizations and institutions of higher education do to further support opportunities for advancement, that may thereby increase their sense of trust, belonging, and organizational commitment? This Critical Hermeneutic Phenomenological Action Research study explored the lived experiences of current and former Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC) higher education leaders, defined as director and above, and their perceptions of and access to opportunities that support positional advancement, including formal or informal mentorship and sponsorship. The frameworks used to inform the study include Critical/Critical Ra (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Meredith Wronowski Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lisa Borello Ph.D. (Committee Member); Leslie Picca Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Black History; Education; Educational Leadership; Gender; Management; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Religion; Religious History; Systematic; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Management

This research aims to look at the changes and inequities that minority women face in the financial services industry, specifically African American Women in Organizational Leadership. This research focuses on the differences and behavioral impact of these leaders, as well as the lack of representation at the “C-Suite” level, to better understand some of the challenges and barriers they faced that were unique from those faced by their peers, as well as success factors that allowed them to advance to senior-level management positions. Many consumers will unwittingly come across a section titled “Diversity and Inclusion” while browsing the websites of today's leading banks. Almost every bank in the world has made it a requirement to promote this relatively new policy, which aims to ensure that employees of all genders and backgrounds have an equal chance of being hired and progressing through their organizations in a fair manner. We've seen some progress in women's representation in corporate America over the last five years. Since 2015, the number of women in top leadership positions has increased. This is especially true in the executive suite, where female representation has increased from 17 percent to 21 percent. Although this is a step in the right direction, parity is still a long way off, particularly for women of color, who are underrepresented at all levels. Women's representation gains will eventually stall unless significant changes are made early in the pipeline. Women have a significantly harder time advancing in their careers than males due to gender bias. Gender bias, on the other hand, isn't the only roadblock to women's career advancement. Women whose social identities differ from the dominant workplace expectations—that is, women who are not White—face additional challenges, including navigating more precarious situations, being forced to conform to cultural norms that may contradict their social identities, and encountering biases other than gend (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Diana Bilimoria (Committee Chair); Yolanda Freeman-Hildreth (Committee Member); Corinne Coen (Committee Member); Paul Salipante (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Management; Womens Studies

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Franklin University, 2020, Business Administration

The under-representation of women in top executive positions has tremendously gained attention in the corporate world, among researchers, and policymakers, which led this researcher to investigate this topic. Despite the legislation on equal employment opportunities, and the government provided solutions to eradicate discriminatory practices and inequality in the workplace, 11% of women functioned in managerial to chief executive positions in the United States banking industry (Catalyst, 2020). These numbers make experienced and qualified women feel undervalued and reduce the zeal and desire of younger women to aspire to get into top executive positions in the future. The study synthesized existing literature to have a better understanding of the research problem and applied a qualitative phenomenological approach to collect data from 18 bank executives. Data was collected through unstructured, open-ended interview questions, and analyzed to generate 15 significant themes. The findings disclosed that women are desirous of advancing their careers into top executive positions, but the continuous male dominance in top executive positions might be the likely reason for the low representation of women in top executive positions in the U.S. banking sector. The findings also suggested strategies for women to overcome challenges in the U.S. banks and provided opportunities for them to progress their careers into top executive roles.

Committee: Kim Campbell PHD (Committee Chair); Sherry Abernathy PHD (Committee Member); Lewis Chongwony PHD (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration

PHD, Kent State University, 2020, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

BENINCASA, NANCY BROUGHER, PH.D., AUGUST 2020 FOUNDATIONS, LEADERSHIP, AND ADMINISTRATION ASCENSION TO THE SUPERINTENDENCY: HOW FEMALE ADMINISTRATORS PERCEIVE THE ATTAINABILITY AND DESIRABILITY OF THE ROLE (214 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Rosemary Gornik, Ph.D. Currently, 24% of national school superintendents are female (American School Decennial Study, 2010) within an overwhelmingly predominant female workforce. In the state of Ohio, that further decreases to less than 17%. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative study was to more fully understand why the number of female superintendents may be lacking from the lens of female administrators in the pipeline for the position. Primarily, this study attempted to understand whether female administrators, technically qualified for the role, thought the position to be attainable and/or desirable. Along the way, the study participants discussed many issues associated with the culture of educational leadership and females in leadership positions as well as perceived impediments female leaders face. The study consisted of seven participants. Each participant served in a position in the career pathway to the superintendency as defined by Brunner and Kim (2010). Data consisted of two separate rounds of interviews from the seven participants and collected documents from five participants. Forty eight individual patterns emerged from the data collection which resulted in six major research themes. Participants identified several impediments to the attainability of the superintendent position for female administrators. Additionally, the participants discussed their personal navigation of many of these obstacles. Participants varied in their perceptions of the desirability of the role. Some desired to break barriers and serve in the position; others had serious reservations about the application process, selection process and, in some cases, the role itself.

Committee: Rosemary Gornik Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Educational Leadership

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Literacy and Second Language Studies

For over 20 years, researchers and state boards of education have been emphasizing the importance of incorporating digital literacies into instruction. Based on the perceived potential of digital technologies to create greater educational opportunities, and the push from state governments to empower students to fully participate in our knowledge-based economy, proponents have advocated for the incorporation of increasingly computer dependent, blended learning experiences in the classroom, presenting them as fundamental to academic achievement and career success. As public K-12 school districts in Ohio increase their investment in classroom technology through blended learning initiatives, it is important to understand how students and teachers from varied geographic and socioeconomic settings conceptualize the utility and value of blended learning as a platform for learning and literacy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain insight into the conceptualizations of middle level students and teachers from three socioeconomically and geographically diverse public school settings regarding their experiences with blended learning in order to understand the factors that influence the teaching and learning transaction. To better understand these influences, the study employed metaphor analysis (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), as well as the critical lenses of Brandt's (2001) theoretical framework of literacy sponsorship and the theory of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996). Analysis of the transcripts suggests that blended learning initiatives would benefit from enhanced blended learning curricula, emphasizing multimodality, choice, facilitation, and social context in digitally integrative instruction.

Committee: Connie Kendall Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laura Bauer Ed.D. (Committee Member); Mark Sulzer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Susan Watts Taffe Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Software

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about the relationship between sponsor and sponsee in Al-Anon Family Groups from the perspective of sponsors and sponsees in Al-Anon. The main question guiding my research is: What is the nature and quality of the sponsorship relationship as perceived by sponsors and sponsees? Nineteen men and women were interviewed and shared stories of their experience of being a sponsor and a sponsee in the Al-Anon program. I utilized a holistic-content approach to analyze the date from the interviews. To help situate the findings in current literature a discussion of sponsorship in Alcoholics Anonymous, therapy, mentoring, and other helping groups is provided. The findings suggest that there are similarities between Al-Anon sponsorship and mentoring in that both relationships progress through stages of development. The findings suggest that boundaries are an important aspect of Al-Anon that helps its members to healthily detach from other people. Al-Anon members are motivated to help based on the culture of helping found in the program as seen through its service structure and sponsorship. The leadership that Al-Anon sponsors provide finds connections with several leadership theories including, transformational, servant, relational, and authentic leadership. The electronic version of this dissertation is at AURA: Antioch University and Repository Archive, https://aura.antioch.edu/ and Ohio Link ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre Ph.D (Committee Member); Mary Lee Nelson Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2016, English (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation revisits Harriet Malinowitz's landmark 1995 publication Textual Orientations, where she argues for the integration of sexuality in the writing classroom and suggests the field, "find out about its lesbian and gay students." In order to learn how writing studies has addressed sexuality and LGBTQ students, I provide a retrospective of the field's scholarship since Malinowitz. I argue that although many of Malinowitz's ideas have been taken up by queer composition scholars, queercentric writing environments, those that focus primarily on LGBTQ experience, have been left largely unexamined. In response, I argue that queercentric writing courses are more appropriate and generative environments for LGBTQ student writers because they foster queer literacy sponsorship and provide LGBTQ writers with alternative methodologies and rhetorical strategies for (queer) composing. Building from Deborah Brandt's literacy sponsorship and Jonathan Alexander's sexual literacy, and queer literacies, I also argue for the potential of queer literacy sponsorship, which I define as the people, texts, and resources that work in concert to foster LGBTQ literacies, widening and deepening people's knowledge of the LGBTQ community and queer identities and politics. In service of this argument, and in response to Malinowitz's call to learn more about LGBTQ students, the dissertation incorporates some preliminary findings of an IRB-approved pilot study focused on LGBTQ students' experiences in mainstream writing classes at Ohio University. Finally, in an attempt to "queer the brew," as Malinowitz suggests, I argue for queer methodologies of excess, failure, and ambivalence as strategies for rhetorical resistance and alternative meaning making for LGBTQ and other marginalized writers. Within a queer rhetorical context, I explore how LGBTQ writers benefit from being (re)oriented toward the dynamic connections among sexual identity, literacy learning, writing, agency, and ethos.

Committee: Sherrie Gradin (Committee Chair); Mara Holt (Committee Member); Talinn Phillips (Committee Member); Ghirmai Negash (Committee Member); Sarah Wyatt (Committee Member) Subjects: Rhetoric

Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2016, Journalism

Within the first decade and a half of the 21st century, we have seen increasing attention being paid to the medium of podcasting. This thesis explores the connection between the modern advent of mobile digital listening via podcasts and the tradition of documentary storytelling found in US Public Radio.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Advisor) Subjects: Journalism; Mass Communications

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Kinesiology

With more than $55 billion allocated towards the practice on an annual basis, sponsorship has become an increasingly integral part of the marketing mix for brand marketers (IEG, 2015). Further, sport organizations rely on sponsorship as an important funding mechanism to finance its continued operations. Utilizing the lens of the relationship marketing literature, it is evident that the relationship between the sponsoring firm and a sponsored property is intended to be a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership. However, despite the importance of a sponsorship's duration to both sides of the relationship, it is not well–understood whether certain factors or conditions can jeopardize these cooperative, business-to-business partnerships. Therefore, this study intended to further understanding of the relationship between sponsorship sellers and buyers by investigating factors that may predict the dissolution of such partnerships. Event history analysis (EHA) modeling approaches were employed to investigate sets of variables representing four distinct factors, including economic conditions, agency conflicts, sponsor-related and property-related factors, utilizing a historical secondary dataset featuring a pooled sample of 68 global Olympic TOP and FIFA World Cup sponsorships. Using a hierarchical (nested) modeling approach, results indicated that the blocks of sponsor-related and property-related variables, as well as variables representing economic conditions, predicted a significant amount of incremental variance in the hazard rate for sponsorship dissolution. For example, the presence of an inflationary economy in the home country of the sponsor was found to be a statistically significant predictor, with a 1% increase in the average annual growth rate of the consumer price index during the sponsorship increasing the hazard of sponsorship dissolution by 64.4%. Sponsor-related variables that were found to be significant included whether or not the sponsoring brand (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Turner (Advisor); John Casterline (Committee Member); Richard Lomax (Committee Member); Donna Pastore (Committee Member) Subjects: Marketing; Sports Management

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2011, Higher Education

Educating for citizenship has pervaded the mission of higher education from classical Greece up to the present day. Colleges and universities increasingly encourage service learning and other curricular approaches that promote social responsibility and civic involvement. Other mission-oriented institutions, such as Catholic health care, grapple with issues of social responsibility and civic involvement as they discern their role in the community and face the challenges of a changing workforce. This dissertation examines, through narrative analysis, how mission commitment in a specific industry—Catholic health care—is influenced by higher education, and how higher education might learn from mission commitment development in that industry. The study explores how nurses understand their personal development of mission commitment with a specific focus on the way in which life experiences—familial, collegiate, and professional—have enhanced or driven their mission formation. Because higher education is an integral part of the process of nurturing and sustaining responsible civic engagement, this study first seeks to understand that process as a pedagogical endeavor. It next narrows this broad discussion of responsible and engaged citizenry to a more focused study of the specific discipline of nursing: first, its theoretical and practical curricular and co-curricular approaches to education, and then the expectations of a specific corresponding industry—Catholic health care— for its newly hired professionals. The Backward Design process frames the discovery of common ground shared by higher education and Catholic Health care in mission commitment formation. Participants in this study comprise a purposeful sampling of 13 nurses employed by a large Catholic health care system in the Midwest. These nurses are front-line, baccalaureate-prepared, and institutionally recognized, cited, or awarded for their mission commitment. Their collected narratives, analyzed through the l (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lynne Hamer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Richard Gaillardetz Ph.D. (Committee Member); Debra Gentry Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sue Idczak Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Education; Education History; Education Philosophy; Educational Theory; Ethics; Health Care; Health Care Management; Health Education; Higher Education; Medical Ethics; Nursing; Organizational Behavior; Religious Congregations; Religious Educati

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Political Science

The principal purpose of this research is to explain and to analyze the policy preferences of Black and White state legislators in the Ohio General Assembly. In particular, the study seeks to understand whether or not Black state legislators advocate a distinctive policy agenda through an analysis of their policy preferences and bill sponsorship patterns. Essentially, one of the central objectives of the study is to determine the extent to which legislators' perceptions of their policy preferences actually correspond with their legislative behavior (i.e., bill sponsorship patterns). In addition to understanding the impact of race upon legislative preferences, I also analyze additional factors (e.g., institutional features, district characteristics, etc.) which potentially influence legislators' policy preferences and legislative behavior. The data for this inquiry derive from personal interviews with members of the Ohio legislature conducted in the early to late 1990's and legislative bills introduced in the 1998-1999 session. The analyses of these data suggest that Black state legislators exhibit distinctive agenda setting behavior measured in terms of their policy priorities and bill sponsorship patterns in comparison to White state legislators. Black legislators are significantly more likely to prioritize race-based policy issues relative to White state legislators. In addition, the findings indicate that Black legislators support policy priorities which are generally consistent with traditional legislative decisionmaking. Hence, Black legislators balance “dual representational roles” as both race representatives and responsible legislators. The results also suggest that the policy priorities of legislators parallel their bill sponsorship activity. Black legislators are proportionately more likely to sponsor Black interest (i.e., racial justice) legislation than White state legislators. The evidence also indicates that the majority of bill proposals (i.e., both B (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Nelson, Jr. (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Physical Activity and Educational Services

Grounded in social identity theory and balance theory this study employed an experimental design to extend previous research on sport teams, sport sponsors, and sport consumers. Specifically, this research examined the impact negative sponsor behavior has on consumer attitudes toward the sponsor and consumer levels of team identification while also taking into consideration the team response to the negative event. Four treatment groups—negative information/no response, negative information/continue response, negative information/terminate response, irrelevant information (control)—were utilized to test the hypotheses The data were analyzed using ANOVA and MANOVA. Results revealed that sponsor behavior and team response (continuing or terminating the sponsor relationship) was a non-factor in team identification levels; however, bad sponsor behavior and team response had a marked influence on consumers, in particular highly identified fans, attitude toward the sponsor. That is, highly identified fans reported more favorable attitudes toward a sponsor regardless of the sponsor behavior. Additionally, an identification x treatment group interaction was noted such that highly identified fans reported more favorable attitudes toward the badly behaving sponsor when the team continued the relationship with the sponsor compared to when the team terminated the relationship with the sponsor. This research holds a practical significance, as results provide insight on how consumers respond to the occurrence of negative events by a sponsor including what type of team response is best received by consumers of the team, as well as theoretical significance as it examined and tested tenants of social identity and balance theory relative to fans and sponsors.

Committee: Janet Fink (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Physical Activity and Educational Services

This study was designed to examine the influence of product involvement and fan identification on the response to a sponsor's products in terms of awareness, attitudes, and purchase intention. Hypothesis 1 predicted that sponsoring companies producing either low-involvement or high-involvement products will generate higher awareness toward their brands among fans who are highly identified with the teams. The result of logistic analysis indicated that high-identified fans with the team recalled the sponsors better than low-identified fans (High-fan ID M = 63.0%, Low-fan ID M= 60%, p < .05). Hypothesis 2a predicted that sponsoring companies producing low-involvement products will generate more favorable attitudes toward their brands among high-identified fans while 2b predicted that there would be no difference in fans' attitudes toward sponsoring companies' high-involvement products. ANOVA analysis showed that sponsors did not generate more favorable attitudes towards their products among high- identified fans (M = 4.87) compared to low-identified fans (M = 4.70, F(1, 2036) = 2.35, p = .13). Hypothesis 3a predicted that sponsoring companies producing low-involvement products will generate higher purchase intentions toward their brands among high-identified fans. Hypothesis 3b predicted that there would be no difference in fans' purchase intention toward sponsors of high-involvement products. The results of ANOVA indicated that high-identified fans' purchase intentions toward sponsors' products were significantly higher (M = 4.70) than those of low-identified fans (M = 4.44, F(1, 2155) = 4.97, p < .05). However, contrary to our prediction, sponsors producing high-involvement products generated higher purchase intentions (High Fan ID M= 4.54, Low fan ID M = 4.06, F(1, 532) = 5.35, p < .05). Hypothesis 4 predicted that high-identified fans will perform better than low-identified fans in the matching test in which respondents were asked to mach each brand to a sponsoring (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donna Pastore (Advisor) Subjects:

PHD, Kent State University, 2011, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This dissertation examines the construct of literacy sponsorship within the context of online literacy practices of soldiers blogging from Iraq and Afghanistan between 2008 and 2010. While existing treatments of the literacy sponsorship construct are situated within print-based modes of textual production, I argue that the new media context poses significant complications for current assumptions central to the construct; namely, that individuals pursue literacy practices as a means of socioeconomic empowerment, and that institutional definitions of literacy reproduce institutional ideologies. The case of military blogs is of particular import given current Department of Defense efforts to maintain information security during wartime. Additionally, this study extends current understandings of sponsorship by situating the study of sponsorship within actual discourse practices of sponsors and soldiers. This study draws on a multi-method approach of data collection and analysis in the forms of document collection from the Department of Defense, email interviews with nine currently deployed soldiers, and textual analysis of the soldiers' blogs. The research design, in the form of a case study, provides a framework in which researcher-generated data and participant-generated data are compared. Data analysis for this study takes the form of three conceptually overlapping parts; analysis of the development for regulations that authorize soldiers' blogging practices, comparative analyses of soldiers' rhetorical knowledge about their blogs and blog post content, and a sample case study of one soldier's blogging practices. Results from this study reveal individuals acting on behalf of the sponsoring institution to read and regulate soldiers' blog content maintain idiosyncratic processes for doing so. These disparate forms of sponsorship are in part due to the new media context, which allows soldiers to define their own rhetorical situations, and which makes identifying sol (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Pamela Takayoshi Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Brian Huot Ph.D. (Committee Member); Patricia Dunmire Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alexa Sandmann Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Composition; Literacy; Military Studies; Rhetoric; Web Studies