Dissertation Abstracts Of Recent Graduates
Jason Dedrick
Title: Impacts of Information Technology on Organizational Form
Abstract: Researchers in the field of management information systems
have been historically interested in how information technology influences the way that firms organize economic activities.
This includes how firms are organized internally and how they organize transactions in the value chain. I plan to conduct
research on the impact of IT on organizational form through two related but distinct studies. The first is a qualitative
study of the personal computer industry, which will involve generating empirically-derived propositions and comparing them to
existing theory. The second is a quantitative study using survey data to test a subset of propositions within the framework.
Thomas P. Moliterno
Title: Behavioral Antecedents of Firm-Level Resource Replacement and Acquisition
Abstract: While the RBV argues that the firm's resources are
a source of competitive advantage, there has been very little work that has
examined the firm's management of its resource portfolio. Employing insights
from the behavioral theory of the firm, I examine changes in the composition
of the firm's bundle of strategic resources and argue that antecedent firm performance
relative to aspiration is a significant determinant of the firm's "resource
replacement and acquisition strategy." I propose and examine three components
of this resource management strategy: the overall intensity of resource replacement,
the nature of replacement resources, and the compositional characteristics of
the new resource portfolio. To explore these relationships, this dissertation
employs a longitudinal and population-level sample of individuals and teams
that participated in major league baseball during the period 1946-1960.
Dale Ganley
Title: The Global Digital Divide : A Multi-Generational
Country Level Analysis
Abstract: This dissertation focuses on evaluating the size
and assessing the weight of the dynamic forces that shape the digital divide
across generations of technologies that provide the foundation for e-Business
in the globally networked economy. It consists of three interlocking chapters
focused on illuminating the dynamic state, driving factors, and potential remedies
for the digital divide. Throughout we use panel data of up to 40 countries from
1970-2001, from three distinct generations of IT: mainframes, personal computers,
and Internet. In Chapter 1, we conduct an empirical investigation of socio-economic
factors driving the digital divide, using a pooled factors approach and quantile
regression techniques. We demonstrate that factors that previously may have
been expanding the Divide with earlier technologies are narrowing the gap as
the Internet becomes the defining technology of the Informage age.
In Chapter 2, we provide detailed insights into the dynamics underlying the
divide across different technologies, using a theoretically-founded diffusion
model of IT penetration that incorporates co-diffusive interactions across successivwe
IT generations. We find that the narrowing of the divide is driven in large
part by inter-generation co-diffusive effects, which are stronger in developing
countries as compared to developed countries.
In Chapter 3, we combine the approaches used int he first two chapters to develop
and estimate a model of IT penetration that focuses on the factors that influence
the heterogeneity of IT diffusion processes across the divide. One of our main
findings is that, with the Internet, there is a general move away from factors
based on personal preference determinants that were important in mainframe and
PC diffusion. While they still play a part in determining diffusion patterns
of all three technologies in developed coutnries, in developing countries, factors
based on economic and social structures hold primary importance.
Put together, our results shed new light on the future evolution of the global
digital divide, and suggest ways in which policies and developmental programs
can be structured to promote IT penetration around the globe.
Teimur Abasov
Title: Dynamic Learning Effect in Corporate Finance and
Risk Management
Abstract: One of the traditional ways to model uncertainty
in finance is thorugh some diffusion process assuming that parameters of this
process were known. However this assumption is hardly realistic. Indeed, while
many financial variables are certainly observable, it is impossible to claim
that parameters of the processes that describe the evolution of those variables,
such as drift and volatility, are observable as well. In practice, they are
represented by the estimates obtained from the past data. In the process an
"estimation" risk is introduced, implying that implicitly parameters
are perceived as random (uncertain) quantities. This idea extends to the risk-neutral
framework with a little tweak: although under the risk-neutral measure all assets
grow at the same (interest) rate, which is obviously observable, the drift of
the interest rate does not have to be. This dissertation is devoted to parameter
uncertainty - one source of uncertainty that is often neglected and completely
unrelated to the one associated with Brownian motion. We examine its implications
in the context of: 1) pricing of corporate debt and equity; 2) valuation of
real and financial call options, and 3) risk management. The first two belong
to the class of American-style option-pricing problems*. As analytical solutions
are impossible, we rely on numerical analysis, which proves that prices of both
real and financial options are in fact higher than previously thought. Likewise
equity is more valuable causing debt to be underpriced. These results are perfectly
intuitive since option values are positively related to volatility while parameter
uncertainty essentially increases the total uncertainty. The third application
addresses the problem of a risk manager, who is uncertain about the true value
of mean expected return, but must abide by constraints imposed by risk management
procedures** such as portfolio insurance and value-at-risk control. Our findings
indicate that: if constraint is relatively soft the investment strategy of a
VAR-agent is more or less similar to that of an ordinary investor, although
VAR-constraint appears to have reduced some of the potential risk-taking on
behalf of the portfolio manager; in case VAR-constraint is too harsh, dynamic
learning unequivocally strengthens risk aversion tendencies, so that the effect
on asset prices may be very significant***.
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* The timing of default in the first problem is considered endogenously chosen
by the stockholders.
** It seems that the very reason for some investors to reply on these procedures
must be higher than usual uncertainty about environment, which can be interpreted
as uncertainty about parameters.
*** Surprisingly, we were able to calculate the composition of an optimal portfolio
explicitly.
Gaiyan Zhang
Title: Industry Credit Contagion: Evidence from the Credit
Default Swap Market and the Stock Market
Abstract: Recent clustering and cascading of credit events
have drawn considerable attentions of the finance community to the research
of credit contagion. Explanations of credit contagion are proposed but segmented.
Existing empirical work mostly focuses on the stock market reactions and is
restricted to certain credit events. To provide a solid empirical foundation
for credit contagion models, this paper comprehensively studies the effect of
credit deterioration of a corporate on the default risk of its industry counterparts,
captured in the Credit Default Swaps (CDS) Market. We systematically document
the existence and heterogeneity of within-industry contagion for a broad universe
of credit events, including Chapter 11 bankruptcies, Chapter 7 bankruptcies,
and other significant jump events. Our empirical results suggest that industry
contagion matters in explaining default risk changes at firm level. In addition,
we investigate drivers of credit contagion within a unified framework incorporating
macroeconomic, industry and firm-specific factors, and identify two important
firm-level determinants undocumented in prior studies, i.e. the influence power
of the distressed firm, and the fragility of its peer firms. This finding is
instrumental in explaining the clustering and cascades of credit events during
recessions. Furthermore and importantly, our study uncovers the evidence of
pure contagion beyond the macroeconomic and industry common factors. Finally,
we find that credit contagion is captured in the CDS market in an earlier, cleaner
and stronger way than in the stock market. Our results have practical implications
on risk management, investment and pricing of credit sensitive portfolio.
Guangzhi (Terry) Zhao
Title: Goal Orientation, Feature Positive Effect, and
Message Framing: The Persuasiveness of Antismoking TV Ad Targeted at Youths
Abstract: This research proposed a refined typology of message
frames. Specifically, message frames were distinguished along the dimension
of outcome type (benefits vs. costs) in addition to the dimension of outcome
valence (positive vs. negative) and the relative persuasiveness of four message
frames were studied in the context of antismoking TV ads targeted at youths.
Based on Feature Positive Effect, we predicted that message frames emphasizing
the presence of behavior outcomes would be more persuasive than those emphasizing
the absence of behavior outcomes. The enhanced persuasion was attributed to
perceptual fluency. Additionally, consistent with Regulatory Focus Theory, we
predicted that, for promotion-focused youths, a benefit-positive message depicting
the presence of behavior benefits would be the most persuasive, while for prevention
focused youths, a cost-negative depicting the presence of behavior costs would
be the most persuasive. The enhanced persuasion was attributed to heightened
perceived diagnosticity of information matching to youths' regulatory focus.
Findings from two experimental studies with a total of 1,162 high school students
supported these predictions.