True loyalty, which denotes customer's willingness to continue patronizing a firm over the long term, buying its goods and service on a repeated and preferably exclusive basis, and voluntarily giving word-of-mouth referrals to friends and associates, is an extremely valuable asset to the financial service providers - as the customer's motivation for switching to competitive alternatives is reduced. A conceptual model is developed in this paper to present the likely influence of customer relationship quality with the salesperson on the development of true customer service loyalty (dispositional dimension) to the associated financial service provider firm through personal capitalization on a customer's trust, satisfaction, commitment, affective conflict and reduced perceived risk with the salesperson (attributional dimensions) and a customer's positive perceived service quality of the firm (structural dimension). It is suggested that a strong customer relationship with a financial planning salesperson leads to true service loyalty to the principal, as positive attitudes towards the salesperson are transferred directly to the firm. In situations where a strong relationship develops between the customer and only one particular salesperson, true loyalty to the firm will be a consequential outcome of high personal loyalty and, therefore, rely on the continued availability of the salesperson. To assist managers in encouraging relationship development between their financial planning sales professionals and their customers, potential antecedents of relationship quality in the perspective of sales ethics and interpersonal selling behaviours are identified and discussed in this paper. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thesis (PhDBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Empirical studies within a cognitive load framework have determined that for novice learners, worked examples provide appropriate levels of instructional guidance. As learners advance in specific subject domains, worked examples should be gradually replaced by practice problems with limited guidance. These studies compared immediate and delayed performance in transfer from examples to practice problems using example-problems pairs and gradual fixed fading of worked examples as well as a control condition of pure problem solving. These studies were conducted with employees of a financial services company in a classroom environment. In Experiments 1 and 2, the fading condition indicated possible benefits over the other conditions on immediate and delayed performance measures (although results were not statistically significant). Experiment 3 used a modified fading method and demonstrated that the fading condition performed marginally better than the problem solving condition on delayed performance measures (although results were not statistically significant). Even though the fading condition did not demonstrate significant advantages in immediate post-test measures, over time learners benefited most from this condition. Experiment 4 investigated if the delayed fading effect found in experiment 3 would be observed using far transfer test performance measures. The results of this experiment indicated that the fading condition performed marginally better than the problem solving condition on delayed transfer post-test performance (although results were not statistically significant). Generally the results of this thesis favored the fading condition over the example-problem and problem solving conditions, and the advantage of this condition was enhanced with greater performance in delayed and transfer post-test measures.

This thesis examines the link between the top management group and company financial performance in Australian banks, and identifies some of the most important demographic characteristics involved in the relationship. A number of scholars have studied the link between the top management group’s demographic characteristics and various organisational outcomes, such as financial performance, diversification strategy, competitive moves, strategic conformity and persistence and organisational innovation (Bantel and Jackson, 1989; Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1990; Hambrick and D’Aveni 1992, Hambrick, Cho and Chen, 1996; Wiersema and Bantel, 1992). This research is different from previous studies of top management group effectiveness because it combines several methodological features found separately in these studies. The present study uses an inclusive, self nominated, definition of the top management group and a systematic, conceptual approach for selecting the demographic characteristics used to describe the top group. It also collects longitudinal data directly from the field, and is one of few studies of top management effectiveness conducted on organisations outside the USA. (For complete abstract open document)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 24, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2002. / Title from title screen (viewed 16 April 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Finance, School of Business, Faculty of Economics and Business. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-191).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Glasgow, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 458-502). Print version also available. Mode of access : World Wide Web. System requirements : Adobe Acrobat reader required to view PDF document.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-140). Also available via the Internet.