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Weatherhead Doctor of Management Programs
Show moreIt has been well documented that over 50% of all mergers and acquisitions (M and A) fail. Despite a multitude of studies by M and A researchers, failure rates have not significantly changed for several decades. As such, the complex behavior of mergers, acquisitions, and their failure remains largely unexplained. Some researchers believe that the emerging field of complexity science may be the key to unlocking the secrets of M and A success. Complexity science, as applied to organizations, asserts that the simple interactions between managers can result in the complex behavior of the management team, specifically in its ability to address organizational change. In fact, companies that consistently beat the odds, such as Cisco and GE Capital, focus on developing high performance M and A management teams. The purpose of the proposed study is to explore the correlation between manager interactions and management team behavior toward organizational change in successfully merged or acquired firms.
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Show moreComputer assisted surgery has not been overwhelmingly adopted by surgeons even after extensive formal training in the technique. Physician technology adoption behavior is not well understood, particularly technology that changes clinical practice. Within technology adoption research there are limited studies in discontinuance. The traditional research states that discontinuers tend to be less educated and of a lower socio-economic status. This is clearly not the case with surgeons who experiment with but subsequently discontinue using computer assisted surgery. This paper is a proposal to research this discontinuance phenomenon.
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Show moreThe Airline Industry has experienced considerable change since the Airline Deregulation Act took effect in 1978, both because of the new business climate engendered by deregulation and because of technological advances in and surrounding the industry. One of the most powerful change agents has been the Internet, which is widely used in the sale and distribution of airline tickets. Several researchers have noted that the rise of the Internet has been accompanied by a decrease in airline fares. Previous studies have suggested several causal categories – for example, reduced search costs, greater transparency, mistrust, uncertainty, more effective buying strategies – but have not studied the categories together, or from the customer’s pointofview. The purpose of this current study is to examine the mechanisms by which the Internet has caused that reduction, focusing first on how the customer uses the Internet differently than he did more traditional distribution alternatives, how the customer has understood that change in process, and why that has lead to a reduction in fares. The study will be qualitative, based on a series of interviews with a sample of Internetusing airline customers. The customers will be asked to describe their experience. Using Grounded Theory methodology, the Investigator will then describe the interviews using the literature as a theory base, and then try to understand if the causal categories in the literature are sufficient to explain the change or whether new categories emerge.
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Show moreIn 2005, most large cities in the United States - those with populations of 400,000 or more –find that the majority of their residents are persons of color (US Census, 2000). Various non-profit and/or public sector organizations try to serve these populations; often, these agencies will employ a preponderance of persons from the communities they are attempting to serve to assure that clients can have direct contact with people who “look, speak and act like them”. For the purpose of this analysis, when the majority of the employees are non-Euro-Americans, the agencies are called “non-dominant culture” organizations. This paper conceptualizes the impact that an individual’s personal experiences of discrimination, “hardiness” and perceptions of group stereotypes have on his/her workplace behavior when employed in a non-dominant culture organization, specifically an African American one. The analysis looks at a number of what will be called “self-limiting” employee behaviors through the lens of individual dis-identification and reaction displacement in the workplace. The intent is to identify how these self-limiting behaviors subsequently affect organizational capacity.
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Show moreThis study draws on two different inquiry methologies to explore the issue of advertising effectiveness of celebrity endorsers in a nonprofit setting. In Chapter 2 the author develops a framework that incorporates connection (congruence), source credibility, involvement, and gender as key elements in understanding the connection between celebrity endorsers and nonprofit organizations, and its impact on advertising effectiveness. In a controlled experiment the proposed model is tested using data collected in 12 sessions at two west coast universities (N=398). The results of this quantitative study support the principal model that posits a realtionship between connection, source credibility, and intention to volunteer or donate money, but does not validate the interaction of involvement and gender with connection. Overall, the proposed framework models the effect of the cognitive components of connection and source credibility of celebrity endorsement advertising in a nonprofit setting on the intention to volunteer time or donate money; and in doing so, does not rely on the "attractiveness" dimension of celebrity, as do so many other frameworks. In Chapters 3 and 4 the author presents two practitioner oriented articles that explore the nonprofit celebrity endorser from the viewpoint of the nonprofit professional. These articles are based on twelve in-depth qualitative interviews with national, regional and local nonprofit executives and consultants. In the first article key celebrity attributes and business issues are identified as being of primary importance to the agency when choosing a celebrity endorser. connection with the organization, character of the celebrity, communication ability, and caring about the cause, are all identified as desireable attributes for a prospective celebrity endorser to possess. In the second article a list of five tips for success and five traps to avoid in choosing a celebrity endorser are detailed. These tips and traps are based on actual experiences as told by the nonprofit leaders.
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Show moreDo leaders who define their business in terms of achieving a greater purpose as well as financial profit attain more favorable outcomes in terms of both profit and social or environmental outcomes? When those leaders approach their business with a sense of connectedness (or what we call a “consciousness of connectedness”), do they create an environment in their organizations with higher levels of shared vision, greater compassion and collaboration, and does this in turn lead to positive social and environmental outcomes as well as better economic outcomes? This exploratory research is aimed at investigating how a consciousness of connectedness within leaders, combined with a business intent that includes serving a greater purpose, impacts economic, social and environmental outcomes of business organizations. Based on a quantitative survey methodology with 322 respondents consisting of business owners, senior executives and middle managers from a cross section of industries, our findings suggest that greater purpose, and a leader’s consciousness of connectedness, may have a measurable impact on the relationships and climate within organizations and on perceived output in terms of economic prosperity and positive social and environmental outcomes. Keywords: Connectedness, consciousness, leadership, flourishing, mindfulness, spirituality, social and environmental impact
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Show moreOur qualitative study sought to understand the meaning of success within the context of the family owned firm. The study, designed to identify success factors that distinguished more successful firms from less successful firms, revealed four significant and three moderate differentiators. Significant among the findings was the role of trust not only within the owning family but also between the family and non-family members of the firm. Implications of the study suggest it may be possible to construct a multi-attribute model of family firm success.
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Show moreMy interest in women and corporate boards evolved from a general desire for more information on boards. Being the most senior woman executive in an educations institution, there appeared to be no senior individuals available to assume a role on our board and to illustrate the possible role women executives could play. During my initial research it became obvious there were very few senior women executives who had ascended to positions on their organization's corporate board. there was also very little known about women inside directors, giving me a tremendous opportunity to begin to answer numerous questions. My grand tour questions were to identify how women inside directors were represented on corporate boards and how their status was determined. Questions surrounding representation included the following sub-questions: Do women inside directors sit on larger boards? Do boards with women inside directors have a larger number of inside directors? Do boards with women inside directors have a larger representation of family members who are also directors? The question on status was an issue of determining the influence of women inside directors by identifying their contributions and how they are utilized. the sub-questions surrounding influence included the following: Are women inside directors younger than male inside directors? Do women inside directors have shorter board tenure than male inside directors? How do the salaries of women inside directors compare to male inside directors? How are women inside directors utilized? This research did not vary from this initial intent. These questions are answered, but as with most research, more questions were raised.
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Show moreWe interviewed seventeen successful leaders to explore their experience of effective strategic conversations yielding innovative outcomes. Although these organizational leaders uniformly espoused emergent conversation, whereby they prefer to collaborate with their teams in an experiential learning process, their conversations were primarily leader-driven directed discussions with specific outcomes in mind. Moreover, they described not single events, but multiple strategic conversations distributed over time, with varied participants and purposes. Successful strategic conversations appear to develop, over time, in a dialectic space formed by the leader's desire for authentic contributions by participants and the experience of organizational and cultural forces that inhibit emergent innovation. Keywords: conversational learning, strategic conversation, organizational discourse, time, collaborative innovation
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Show morePublic activities were observed at a Phoenix historic preservation meeting. Subsequent research involved interviewing 4 individuals who told personal stories, recounted opinions, and compared themselves with others in the preservation commons. These actors accept duty because they believe grass roots social and economic activism improves their community’s quality of life. Their symbolic interaction at the local scale validates the essential Protestant creation myth of American democracy. Issues of cooperation and defection have applicability to situations where volunteers advise the cultural, environmental, and science sectors of the economy. This ethnography establishes knowledge that helps explain and predict patterns of human behavior, and provides insights vital to the success of local, national, and international preservation efforts.
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Show moreIn July 2002, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which mandated that public corporations substantially change their corporate governance practices. Sarbanes-Oxley was the result of egregious practice of corporations, directors, officers, and advisors, which resulted in billions of investor dollars being misappropriated and lost. Substantial corporate resources are being expended to comply with the intended (statutory) consequences of the Act. Within the framework of stockholder theory, the historic CEO-centric model of governance is being replaced by the independent director-centric model (post Sarbanes-Oxley). As a consequence of Sarbanes-Oxley, its foundational requirement of agency theory application advances an adversarial model of distrust. The theory of trust will help frame the board and CEO dilemma of acting cohesively as the roles and responsibilities of the board and CEO are transforming. Within trust, the concept of high trust/high distrust depicts a practice model that could evolve as a result of the Act. The board and management must continue to focus their collective efforts for the benefit of the shareholders who have entrusted them with their financial well-being.
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Show moreThis research focused on corporate independent directors and senior executive officers: their perceptions of Sarbanes-Oxley; their roles and responsibilities as officers and directors; how board relationships have transformed as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley; and how the CEO-board and board member-board member trust dynamics impact the management of the board. Implicit in Sarbanes-Oxley is agency theory and the responsibility of independent directors to monitor and control management. The central findings are that independent directors and executive officers are culturally adapting to the new institutional environment of Sarbanes-Oxley, and their new relationship is characterized by “creative tension” whereby distinct and separate roles require mutual trust. Creative tension includes a trust dynamic of high trust/high distrust. The board member-board member relationship, an increasingly important factor in board functioning, is illuminated by stewardship theory, and requires mutual dependency among directors. The trust dynamic characteristic of this relationship is high trust/low distrust. Four governance types emerge; traditional, traditional-progressive, progressive-traditional and progressive in determining director roles. Success of the board depends on trust, yet Sarbanes-Oxley relies on a presumption of distrust, which can thwart creation of an effective and sustainable board.
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Show moreThe results of governance research are mixed concerning the financial consequences of externally induced regulations. The debate hinges on the assumption that adoption of regulation is an exogenous factor in determining performance. Drawing on basic insights from institutional theory and innovation studies, I argue that response to regulation is in fact a mediator of the relationship between ‘quality of governance’ and financial performance. Focusing on the adoption of Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbox) regulation by publicly traded companies, I hypothesize that governance quality is likely to affect financial success by influencing organizational responses to Sarbox. Using multiple year data from two large datasets, I test the hypothesis and find considerable support for the argument. The results of two-stage least squares analysis suggest that, although response to Sarbox is not directly related to financial performance, quality of governance affects performance through the adoption of Sarbox. Companies with high quality of governance ratings adopt Sarbox more quickly and readily than others, and experience improved financial performance. The implications for governance research and management practice are discussed.
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Show moreThe Internet has disrupted a company’s traditional control over the communication they use to create positive affect. The compilation of reviewer posts plays a leading role in constructing a company’s overall brand sentiment. What is less well understood is how companies can affect a positive post. The objective in this study was to develop a framework that demonstrates how customers and organizations interact online; as well as investigate the on-line interaction and the positive affect it generates. Using a structured equation model, we formulated hypothesis then tested that two distinct mechanisms work together to underpin the creation of a company’s online positive affect: online co-creation and cognitive play between companies and their potential customers. We confirmed that organizations that co-create with their customers and playful are being rewarded with positive affect. In fact, by adding cognitive play to their online interactions, organizations doubled the positive affect expressed by their customers. We discuss the important findings that emerge from this study and suggest directions for additional research. Key words: online post; cognitive play; online reviews; co-creation; positive affect.
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Show moreNon profit collaboration has long been identified as an effective approach to meeting community needs. It is particularly recognized as a solution to the challenges encountered by non profits during periods of economic duress. This study examines the relationship between the sense of ownership felt by non profit collaborative partners and their intent to sustain collaboration. We posit that three particular behaviors: rule breaking, rule making, and appreciative behavior encourage participants to develop a sense of ownership leading to collaborative sustainability. Our findings indicate that rule breaking and rule making behavior reinforces a sense of collaboration ownership which contributes to collaboration sustainability.
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Show moreIn recent years, globalization has promoted one of the most momentous changes in economic history, the demise of the communist-based command economies. One of these transition economies, Vietnam, has experienced vast and dramatic political and economic change since the country embarked on its policy to open its markets and create a market-driven economy. Specifically, the country has authorized-the operation of joint-ventures and privately-owned firms and has equitized (sold to investors) many previously state-owned firms. Senior management of these firms have had to respond to market incentives – both challenges and opportunities – in order to remain competitive and be successful. This paper proposes qualitative research to discover how incentives and leadership attributes contribute to the success of cross-ideology managers in five differing business models currently in existence in Vietnam.
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Show moreThis research is focused on the teacher’s perspective of the dyadic relationship between teachers and othered students—students who are traditionally disregarded and/or are considered outside of the norm (Borrero et al., 2012). The study at hand is limited to this dyad, but is crucial for the understanding of what behaviors, social and emotional intelligence competencies, and practices make a teacher good at reaching othered students beyond the mere academics of doing school. The role of a teacher within the confines of schooling is changing because schools have become institutions involved in socialization, motivation, and adapting to change (i.e., preparing students for societal reform) rather than outlets for the exchange of information. On the basis of this relationship, both participants may effectively give and receive care, compassion, and psychological safety, or not. Our findings included teachers 1) learning about a student’s negative life event(s), 2) experiencing career satisfaction, 3) feeling and displaying empathy, 4) varying pedagogy, 5) taking initiative in helping, 6) caring, and 7) providing students with comfort. Implications for teacher training, continuing development, and a developmental scale are explored.
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Show moreOver time enterprises have woven together a fabric of processes, information structures, and computer tools to conduct their day-to-day business. Many of the components of this patchwork of systems cannot work together effectively, as the underlying models they are based on are incompatible. There is however, a strong financial case to be made for ensuring that end-to-end business processes are interoperable, both across the enterprise, and with other enterprises. There is a great deal of theory to describe how to achieve Interoperability from a technical perspective, and a growing body of theory that describes systematic approaches to govern this domain. Theory aside, the world of practice continues to demonstrate little forward progress. This paper will seek to address this apparent gap between what is promised and what is realized. Proposed qualitative research is motivated by the notion that acculturation issues between the business community and its IT counterparts play a significant role in sub-optimizing integration capabilities.
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Show moreDespite increasing need for interoperable enterprise-level information systems, achieving interoperability is persistently problematical. Our work highlights social factors as a major contributor to good design, development, and operating practices. The research was conducted at a technologically sophisticated Fortune 50 company where design artifacts suggested by the literature were found to be in place yet good interoperability between systems was not consistently achieved. The data suggest boundary spanners can facilitate interoperability by promoting shared meanings and mindsets that advance acculturation among cross-functional groups. Findings contrast with enterprise systems interoperability literature, which has focused mainly on technological factors to ensure good design and operational capability.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreDespite increasing need for interoperable enterprise-level information systems, achieving interoperability is persistently problematical. Our work highlights social factors as a major contributor to good design, development, and operating practices. The research was conducted at a technologically sophisticated Fortune 50 company where design artifacts suggested by the literature were found to be in place yet good interoperability between systems was not consistently achieved. The data suggest boundary spanners can facilitate interoperability by promoting shared meanings and mindsets that advance acculturation among cross-functional groups. Findings contrast with enterprise systems interoperability literature, which has focused mainly on technological factors to ensure good design and operational capability.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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