Wildlife management requires understanding resources and involving stakeholders. The process Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) and Virginia Tech used to develop a black bear (Ursus americanus) management plan during 1999-2001 provided me with opportunities to understand diverse stakeholders and examine influences of participation on stakeholder knowledge, attitudes, and opinions concerning bear management. I used focus groups (with 5 key stakeholder groups), pre- and post-planning surveys, and interviews. I surveyed VDGIF biologists and managers (N = 21), members of a stakeholders advisory committee (N = 15), and members of 3 constituent groups representing bear hunters (N = 459), beekeepers (N = 442), and environmental interests (N = 500). I interviewed advisory committee members to validate survey results and evaluate the bear management plan. Participation apparently improved constituents' knowledge about bear management and their image of VDGIF bear management, and increased their support for controversial management options (e.g., lethal methods), but did not affect their opinions about bear hunting. Participation apparently had little effect on VDGIF staff opinions about bear management. Knowledge varied widely among constituent organizations. Bear hunting continues to be one of the most central, yet divisive, bear management issues in Virginia. Advisory committee members and VDGIF staff expressed satisfaction with the bear management plan and the planning process. Recommendations for wildlife decision-making processes include: balance science and public values in management, use multiple public involvement techniques, establish collaborative forums among stakeholders, reach out to all stakeholders, and nurture relationships with constituents during implementation. / Master of Science

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

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The purpose of this study was to identify and examine the roles and functions of parent advisory councils serving Spanish-English bilingual projects funded under ESEA Title VII. It was also the intent of this study to determine if there existed signif icant differences on the ranking of roles and functions by the participants with respect to the specified variables of: position of participant, sex, age level, education level, bilingualism and ethnicity. The roles and functions under the program areas of planning, implementation and evaluation were identified through an extensive review of the literature. Twenty-one Spanish-English bilingual projects with grades Kindergarten through eight, funded under ESEA Bilingual-Bicultural Programs 1976-1977 were randomly selected from <ul>Guide To Title VII ESEA Bilingual-Bicultural Programs 1976-1977</ul>. The participants from these bilingual projects were advisory council chairpersons, and project directors. The research instrument developed was a questionnaire which solicited from the participants demographic information on the advisory councils and also asked participants to rank, according to primacy, roles and functions under the program areas of planning, implementation and evaluation. The data were analyzed by the Kendall Coefficient of Concordance W and Multivariate Analysis. The .05 level of significance was chosen for both tests. The results indicated that there existed a high degree of agreement within each group of respondents on the ranking of roles and functions. The only exception was a low degree of agreement by chairpersons ranking functions under evaluation. The results also showed that the independent variables identified made no difference on the ranking of roles and functions. The only exception was the sex variable on the ranking of roles. Male respondents ranked the roles of advisor, supporter and director first, second and third respectively, while female respondents ranked the roles of supporter, director and advisory first, second and third respectively. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to analyze 10 national corporations represented on the national business/industry advisory board of DECA, a national association of marketing education students. DECA's mission is to enhance the cocurricular education of students with interests in marketing, management, and entrepreneurship. DECA's National Advisory Board works directly with the association to influence its educational program that prepares students in career skills and job training. This study was designed to identify major factors, which contribute to successful business partnerships with this national association of marketing students. Upon conducting interviews with representatives of the 10 identified companies, the researcher found that the partnerships existed because each party received something. The companies gained present and future employees as a result of being able to recruit marketing students from DECA. Likewise, through the results of this study, it was determined by the researcher that DECA was able to link school and work through successful integrated education efforts nationwide. This undertaking resulted in building a responsive workforce preparation program. DECA also gained information about its National Advisory Board operations. / Ph. D.

The intention of this dissertation is to understand how federal advisory boards are operationalizing Congressional intent of transparency, financial efficiency and balanced board membership. When Congress passed the Federal Advisory Commission Act (FACA) in 1972, these three values were intended to help add legitimacy to the operation advisory boards. Advisory boards have been in use on the federal level since the first term of President George Washington, and they provide valuable expertise on a wide variety of subjects for the government. Currently, over 1,000 advisory boards are operating across the federal government with nearly 25,000 people participating. Collectively, annual operations of these boards approaches a half billion dollars. In the years leading up to the passage of FACA, Congressional hearings revealed deficiencies across federal departments with transparency of advisory board operations, spending practices, and appointment processes which threatened the legitimacy of their use. The FACA law was intended to bring legitimacy back to boards' operation by requiring more transparency, financial efficiency and balance in viewpoints on board appointments. With the law more than 40 years old, this dissertation explores how advisory boards today are operating is relation to the values Congress laid out in legislation. A quantitative exploration was conducted to assess the fidelity to the Congressional values by using publicly available data points. A sample of the 1,000 operating advisory boards was used to conduct the research. Using the results of the quantitative exploration, six case studies were selected for additional examination. Three cases were selected by a systematic method based on the quantitative data, and three additional cases were selected by the unique results from the data. A dozen policy changes were suggested as a result of the quantitative and qualitative examinations to better align present day operation of advisory boards with the Congressional intent. This study may be useful to policymakers who have oversight on advisory board operations. / Doctor of Philosophy / American citizens provide input to the federal government in several ways. Voting for President and Members of Congress is the most visible way. However, serving on one of the approximately one thousand existing federal advisory boards is another way. These are boards and commissions made up of citizens who have expertise in various subjects for which the government needs ideas to help fix problems affecting our country. The focus of these boards ranges greatly. For example, some boards focus on highly specialized medical issues, and others focus on how citizens use the land around national forests. In 1972, Congress passed a law that set some basic guidelines on how these boards should operate. Congress said that boards need to be transparent in how they work so the public can monitor them easily. Congress also noted that the boards need to use the tax money given to them to operate efficiently and try to save money whenever they can. Finally, Congress wanted boards to have people with different points of views represented, so recommendations are not one-sided. Now that the law is over 40 years old, this dissertation examines how closely advisory boards today are following those guidelines Congress wrote in 1972. This dissertation suggests some ways to measure how close they are following the directions, and it looks in-depth to several of them to see how they operate. Finally, the dissertation gives some new suggestions on how all boards can operate to better reflect the ideas Congress wanted.

Bakgrund: Den automatiserade rådgivningen är ett nytt fenomen på den svenska marknaden som innebär att kunderna ställs inför nya utmaningar när det kommer till investeringsrådgivning. Det har i tidigare forskning inte undersökts hur förtroendet ser ut angående robotrådgivning ur ett kundperspektiv vilket bidrar till ett intresse hos författarna att täcka denna kunskapslucka. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka förutsättningarna för automatiserad kundrådgivning att brett slå igenom, detta genom att analysera potentiella kunders förtroende för tjänst och leverantör samt hur kunder ser på potentiella transaktionskostnadshinder. Det senare genom att undersöka hur kunden uppfattar den tillgängliga informationen, behovet av finansiell kunskap, psykologiska fällor samt kundens syn på eventuellt svekfullt beteende. Genomförande: Studiens genomförande bygger på en kvalitativ metod med åtta intervjuer med privatpersoner och en med en produktägare. Respondenternas förtroende samt åsikter har undersökts genom att sätta upp ett hypotetiskt scenario med den automatiserade rådgivningen. Det har sedan jämförts hur väl robotrådgivningen hanterar de problem som kan uppstå vid investeringsrådgivning jämfört med den traditionella rådgivningen för att på så sätt förenkla respondenternas möjlighet att ge så utvecklade och nyanserade svar som möjligt. Slutsats: Studien visar att det generella förtroendet för den automatiserade rådgivningen kan anses likvärdigt med det som finns för den traditionella rådgivningen, dock har robotrådgivningen en stor brist i de informationsasymmetrier som råder mellan kunden och roboten. På grund av den asymmetriska informationen kan kunden ha svårt att avgöra kvaliteten på robotrådgivningen och kan leda till att denne avstår från att använda sig av en sparrobot. / Background: The automated advisory is a new phenomenon at the Swedish market which means that the customers is faced with new challenges when it comes to investment advisory. It has in previous research not been investigated how the confidence is regarding the robo advisory through a customer-perspective which contributes to an interest from the author’s side to cover this knowledge gap. Aim: The aim with this essay is to investigate the conditions for the automated customer advisory to penetrate the market widely, this by analyze potential customers confidence for the service and supplier together with how the customers looks at potential transaction cost barriers. The later by investigating how the customer perceives the available information, the need for financial literacy, psychological traps together with the customers view on deceitful behavior. Completion: The completion of the study is based on a qualitative approach with eight private individuals and one product owner. The respondent’s confidence and opinions have been investigated by setting up a hypothetical scenario regarding the automated advisory. It has later on been compared how well the robo advisory can handle the problems that may occur during investment advisory compared to the traditional advisory to simplify the respondents opportunity to give as developed and nuanced answers as possible. Conclusion: The study shows that the general confidence for the automated advisory can be considered equivalent with what exists for the traditional advisory, but the automated advisory have a great shortage in the asymmetrical information which prevails between the customer and the robot. Because of the asymmetric information the customer may have difficulties to determine the quality of the robo advisory, which can lead to the customer refraining to use a robo-advisor.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-203). Issued also online.

Die Honorarberatung befindet sich überall in Europa auf dem Vormarsch. Sie ist eine von Regulierern geschätzte Alternative zur viel kritisierten Provisionsberatung. Im Widerspruch dazu verhalten sich Bankkunden zurückhaltend bis ablehnend. Dies wirft die Frage auf, worin die Ursachen liegen könnten. Mögliche Antworten werden auf Basis einer Choice-Based Conjoint-Analyse mit Kundenclusterung abgeleitet. Es zeigt sich, dass die Bankkunden gespalten sind. Eine kleine Gruppe von agilen, gut informierten, einkommensstarken Personen präferiert die Honorarberatung (6% aller Bankkunden). Währenddessen tendiert die große Masse der Kunden zur Provisionsberatung. Diese Masse zeichnet sich durch ein erstaunlich realistisches Bild von sich selbst aus. Sie hält sich für schlecht informiert und wenig erfahren, für unflexibel und nicht offen für Neues. Sie sucht ihr Heil in einem bedingungslosen Vertrauen zur Bank. Ein solches eröffnet Spielräume für opportunistisches Verhalten auch bei der Honorarberatung. Die Politik muss daher entweder die Honorarberatung regulatorisch gegen jede Art des Opportunismus absichern oder liberal agieren und Verstöße gegen den Vertrauensvorschuss ex post sanktionieren. / The transition to fee-based advisory is underway in Europe. The regulatory bodies consider this the preferred alternative in contrast to the commission-based agent approach. However, the same state of euphoria cannot be found among clients. Up until now, banking clients in Germany have been cautious, modest and reluctant. This prompts questions as to what could be the cause of such behaviour. Possible explanations can be found in a conjoint-analysis with client clustering. It can be shown that the behaviour of German clients in banking is divided. A small group of agile, well-informed individuals with high incomes prefers fee-based advisory services (6% of all clients). Meanwhile, the large majority of clients tend to prioritise the commission-based advisory service. Interestingly, this group is characterized by an astonishingly realistic picture of themselves. The clients consider themselves not properly informed, lacking experience, inflexible and not open for innovation. They seek salvation by granting unconditional trust to their banks. These clients cannot assess or judge if a new type of advisory method will offer any kind of advantage. If politics wants to promote the fee-based model it has to assure absolutely water-proof solutions, otherwise a resulting loss of confidence in case of misuse will be inevitable. Taking a more liberal approach, politics could leave several avenues open and instead sanction infringements of accredited trust.