This study provides further evidence regarding the predictive value of quarterly earnings for improving the forecasts of annual earnings. Using an analytical model, it is shown that for a specific class of time-series models, the predictive values are determined by the time-series properties, as measured by parameter value, of quarterly earnings. In particular, the model demonstrates that the accuracy of annual earnings forecasts increases as additional quarterly reports become available, and that the time-series model parameter value is positively related to both total improvement and the first quarter's relative improvement in annual earnings forecasts. These theoretical predictions are empirically tested using a sample of 235 firms over a five year period from 1980 to 1984. Empirical results are consistent with the theoretical predictions. First, annual earnings forecasts become increasingly accurate as additional quarterly reports are available, suggesting that quarterly earnings are useful for improving the forecasts of annual earnings. Second, there are cross-sectional variations in the degree of the improved accuracy in forecasts. More importantly, time-series properties (parameter value) of quarterly earnings are an important determinant of the variations in both total and relative predictive values. This result is robust with respect to different time-series models, forecast error metrics, and statistical methods.

This dissertation is an examination of goal-directed network management, leadership, and governance through the lens of a framework based on the work of Chester Barnard (1938). I approach network management, leadership, and governance through the three Barnardian executive functions: providing a system of communication, securing essential effort, and formulating and providing purpose. These three functions are examined through the empirical examination of the case of the Southern Alberta Child and Youth Health Network (SACYHN). Drawing on both descriptive, qualitative data, as well as quantitative and structural network data, I examine which network actors were undertaking the Barnardian functions in the case of SACYHN and whether network leadership made a difference in overcoming challenges to cooperative action. Data were collected on SACYHN and its approximately 50 member organizations through an organizational questionnaire and elite interviews. Multiple methods were used for analyzing the data, including standard network analysis, qualitative analysis, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), and Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure (MRQAP).By examining goal-directed inter-organizational network management, leadership, and governance through the lens of a Barnardian framework, I found that the essential functions necessary for effective network function are providing a communication system, securing essential effort, and formulating and defining purpose. I also contribute to the theory development around network functioning by proposing the role of network management, leadership, and governance in upholding the communication system, bolstering the securing of effort, and championing purpose. Second, by focusing on the fundamental functions of each, I then propose why and when management, leadership, and governance are important to effective network functioning and the theoretical and practical implications for relationship building in formal, goal directed inter-organizational networks.

<p> When signed into law in 2001, the <i>No Child Left Behind</i> (NCLB) legislation ushered in broad policy affecting the federal government's engagement with local governments on education oversight and monitoring. One provision of NCLB offered parents added control over their child's education and gave them the right to leave their Title I school&mdash;when the school received the label "in need of improvement"&mdash;for another school within the district. </p><p> This study focused specifically on NCLB school choice and examined parents' decisions to opt for or against school choice. More specifically, this inquiry explored the factors that motivated parents to opt for school choice and the benefits that parents hoped to gain for themselves and their children by either staying in their home school or opting for a school of choice. </p><p> Three research questions guided this study and helped the researcher to examine parental perceptions through a social capital lens: 1. What were the characteristics of the parents who opted for NCLB school choice compared with the parents who opted to remain in their home school? 2. From the parents' perspective, what factors led to parents' decisions about selecting their home school or selecting school choice? 3. What characteristics of the school that parents choose to attend made the school a better choice for their child? </p><p> The researcher utilized a mixed methods methodology to facilitate the collection of data that included the distinct voices of the parents who accessed NCLB school choice. The use of both surveys and interviews helped the researcher to gain a better understanding of the parents' thought processes as they made their choices. </p><p> Major findings from the research indicated that parents who chose to use their school choice option focused on the students' learning environment when making their decision. Parents who decided to stay in their home school focused more on their children's well-being and their own connections to the school staff. Additionally, findings indicated that parents who opted for school choice tended to have higher incomes and were better educated. Hispanic parents were more inclined to stay in their home school, while White parents were more likely to move out of their home school. </p><p> This study provides information that policy makers should consider as they examine the option of choice for educational settings and seek to ensure that choice does not detrimentally affect students in a wide variety of school environments.</p>

<p> This quantitative correlation research study sought to understand which perceived style of principal leadership had the most significant positive effect on the progress of students who attended schools in Indiana that made Exemplary Progress annually. The MLQ-5X leader form was used to measure the independent variables: the principals' self-perceptions of their respective leadership behaviors. The MLQ-5X rater form provided triangulation data by measuring the teachers' perceptions of the principals' leadership behaviors. The dependent variable was based on the English/Language Arts and Math results of the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress Plus (ISTEP+) assessments for grades 3-5 from 2009-2012. In addition, the study sought to explore any correlations that existed between academic achievement and any of the five transformational leadership components: idealized influence (attributed and behavior), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. The research design controlled some demographic variables such as years of experience and geographic location of the school (urban, rural, or suburban). An empirical link existed between transformational leadership and Exemplary Progress. There was a moderate significant correlation between transformational leadership and intellectual stimulation. There was a strong significant causal relationship between transformational leadership and perceived effectiveness.</p>

<p> Business model innovation, business model enablers, and strategic agility are terms explicitly evaluated and explored by researchers and practitioners. The focus of this dissertation research project included the previous terms and the respective associations with business and leadership decision-making in the context of strategy and innovation. Research design and methodologies included a qualitative, embedded, single case-study through one-on-one, in-depth interviews with primary decision-makers from small technology companies in Minnesota, United States. Primary respondent qualifications were: (a) minimum of five years of experience, (b) minimum of five subordinates, and (c) decision power to influence business model innovation, business model enablers, or strategic agility. Three research questions guided the project: (1) How do the pillars of strategic agility (strategic sensitivity, leadership unity, and resource fluidity) affect business model innovations? (2) How can managers apply the pillars of strategic agility to enhance organizational strategic agility? and (3) How do senior leadership teams manage the contradictions and paradoxes within strategic agility? Respondent interviews were imported and analyzed through Nvivo qualitative data analytics software (QDAS). Over 50 findings are narrated in Chapter 4, of which included one of the key findings: Every company was actively engaged in the paradox, but none of the company leaders specifically calculated or processed the exact phrase &ndash; strategic agility paradox. Proposed in Chapter 5 are the set of recommendations for future researchers. The recommendations advocate research in or on contrasting industries and geographies, respondents with contrasting profiles, supplementary qualitative and quantitative techniques, alternative strategic agility pillars, and new research questions.</p>

<p> Mobile technology has been one of the most pervasive information technology trends in the past 20 years. From 2012 to 2017, experts project that global mobile data traffic will reach an estimated 11 exabytes per month. Mobile shopping, also known as mobile commerce (m-commerce), has been on the rise as another avenue for consumers to use. Certain organizations, especially small businesses, have been slower to embrace mobile commerce than individual consumers. The general business problem is that many small businesses have not adopted mobile strategies that will meet consumer expectations for mobile commerce. The specific business problem is that no specific data explains the extent to which performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence may influence small businesses&rsquo; intention to adopt mobile commerce. The purpose of this correlational study, based on quantitative, non-experimental research, was to examine the factors of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence that may affect the small businesses&rsquo; intention to adopt mobile commerce. The research focused on small businesses in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. This study is motivated by six research questions: (1) To what extent is there a relationship between performance expectancy and the intent to adopt mobile commerce? (2) To what extent is there a relationship between effort expectancy and the intent to adopt mobile commerce? (3) To what extent is there a relationship between social influence and the intent to adopt mobile commerce? (4) To what extent does performance expectancy influence the small business decision maker&rsquo;s intent to adopt mobile commerce? (5) To what extent does effort expectancy influence the intent to adopt mobile commerce? (6) To what extent does social influence influence the intent to adopt mobile commerce? This study used the Unified Theory of the Adoption and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a framework to investigate these questions. A random sampling technique was used to collect online survey responses from small businesses (n = 124). Pearson Correlation found significant positive relationships between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence and the intention to adopt mobile commerce into small business operations. Multiple Linear Regression found only performance expectancy and social influence to have a significant effect on the intention to adopt mobile commerce. Additional investigation discovered that the small businesses&rsquo; customer type was a moderating factor that changed the outcome of results. This supplemental analysis revealed effort expectancy to have a significant effect on the intention to adopt mobile commerce.</p>

<p> The New York City Public School System has experienced many education reforms over the decades. In 2002, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was granted mayoral control of the New York City Public School System. The continuous reform efforts affected superintendents&rsquo; roles. This change focused on systemic reform rather than local reform, which was one of the community district superintendents&rsquo; responsibilities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the evolving role of superintendents during frequent change efforts introduced in the New York City Public School System between 2002-2016. This study investigated the changing role of superintendents and how the various organizational changes and practices affected school leaders. It also investigated if any transition supports existed for superintendents during the frequent change efforts.</p><p> Research participants included thirteen New York City superintendents who first had experienced the various change efforts for at least five years or more in the role of superintendent. This study was guided by two research questions in which six themes emerged. The findings of the study suggest that all of the 13 participants agreed that frequent transitions affected how they approached their responsibilities. The results also revealed that superintendents that had developed trust in their districts, were able to maintain those relationships during all the change efforts. In addition, all of the participants concurred that their role was to build leaders. This study also found that all participants agreed that before policies are instituted, all educational stakeholders, including parents, must have input. Additionally, the participants acknowledged that the constant change of policy throughout the last decade resulted in lack of consistency and continuity and was not conducive to success. Eight out of the 13 participants agreed that the transition support over the last two years (2014-2016) was substantive. The participants agree that the current administration, seems to have a better approach in introducing and managing change efforts. One of such approaches is the ability for superintendents to provide ongoing support to their principals and monitor instructional changes enables superintendents to fairly evaluate outcomes.</p>

<p> Planning for disasters has been linked to positive outcome in the business recovery process. However, unpreparedness for disasters is prevalent in many developing countries where most small businesses do not maintain a disaster/emergency plan. Sri Lanka in recent years has experienced upsurge in natural disasters from floods, wind storms, droughts, landslides and cyclones where the majority of small businesses experienced a slow recovery. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to gain insight into the perceived barriers and challenges that small business owners in the City of Negombo (Sri Lanka) experienced when developing a disaster/emergency preparedness plan as well as factors that may motivates small businesses owners to adopt a disaster/emergency plan. The study population consists of all 1,780 small businesses located within the city of Negombo, Sri Lanka. The purposive sample included 16 small business owners for individual interviews and 11 members from business associations for three focus group discussions (each including 3-4 participants). After receiving informed consent, data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interview protocol using open ended interview questions until data saturation occurred. . To mitigate study limitations and enhance credibility of this study; prolonged engagement and persistent observation, peer debriefing, member-checking, and data triangulation, were used. The findings of this study yielded 12 distinct themes most of which were fully or partially supported by existing literature. Five themes pertaining to the barriers and challenges business owners encounter when establishing a disaster/emergency plan: lack of knowledge or know how, access to/ problems with insurance, lack of money and resources, disaster will not happen again, and it is not my responsibility. Four of the themes focused on business owners&rsquo; perceived motivators for establishing a disaster/emergency plan: reduce business losses from disasters, train staff to manage crisis situations, business continuation, and save lives. The key recommendations include local and central government authorities, (a) advocate disaster awareness to small business owners, (b) establish mechanisms for small business owners to attain relevant information to prepare for disasters, (c) provide essential resources for the small business owners to set up disaster/emergency plans, and (d) identify ways for business owners to get access to affordable and accessible disaster insurance plans.</p>

<p> Principals play a significant role in schools and impact many aspects of the educational experience. Principal turnover, especially in high-needs schools, has a detrimental effect on schools, specifically on student achievement. One type of educational experience that seeks to serve students of low-income backgrounds and from historically under-served populations are schools run by charter management organizations (CMOs). Previous research has reported that women hold positions of educational leadership far less in proportion to men given the high number of women in teaching positions. Therefore, in order to more fully understand the principals in CMOs, issues of gender must be explored. The purpose of this study was to use a feminist perspective to create a better understanding of principal stability in schools run by CMOs. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p> Past research has suggested that telecommuters can balance their work and personal lives more efficiently than their office counterparts. Researchers had not explored how telecommuters who worked for a private health insurer balanced their work and personal lives. The following aspects of telecommuting were investigated: (a) telecommuters&rsquo; expectations, (b) structure of work and home environment, and (c) handling obstacles at work and home. This qualitative phenomenological study consisted of interview data collected from a convenience sample of 19 full-time telecommuters self-selected from a population of 5,819 people who worked for a private health insurer located in the United States. The theoretical framework for the study was Herzberg&rsquo;s two-factor theory and Maslow&rsquo;s hierarchy of needs theory. Seven themes emerged: (a) maintaining a separate office in the home; (b) setting family expectations; (c) remaining task oriented and disciplined and maintaining a normal routine; (d) communicating with managers and colleagues; (e) juggling work and personal life; (f) taking breaks and lunches; and (g) taking personal time off. The results indicated that work&ndash;life balance can be achieved by (a) creating structure in the working environment, (b) gaining organizational and management support, (c) limiting personal obstacles during working hours, and (d) limiting work-related tasks during personal time.</p>