<p> A tremendous opportunity exists for church and business leaders to work together to bridge an ever-widening gap in both dialogue and understanding of the needs of believers on the front-lines of workplace service. Church leaders are anointed and responsible for equipping believers for ministry in all spheres of life, including service in the marketplace (Eph. 4:13). Church and business professionals need each other; however, due to realities such as the sacred-secular divide and unbiblical working definitions of "ministry" and "vocation," countless numbers of believers have a bifurcated, compartmentalized view of life and vocation. Research reveals that the vast majority of believers do not view their work as an expression of worship to God and service to others. </p><p> Phase one of this project involves research in the form of fifteen interviews with church and business leaders to understand their worldviews so as to better appreciate the factors contributing to the gap. Phase two involves the creation of a Workplace Roundtable Curriculum informed by the interviews and then piloted with church and business leaders at three Roundtable discussions. </p><p> The interviews and Roundtables yielded rich and thoughtful discussions about "whole-life discipleship" and revealed that participants believe workplace discussions are productive and worthwhile. These discussions help facilitate a greater understanding of the sacred-secular divide and its negative, damaging effects on believers, as well as a deeper appreciation of the biblical meaning of "ministry" and "vocation."</p>

<p>Twenty successful leaders in the United States participated in the study to explore the extent to which emotional intelligence supports leadership potential and success. Competent managers with strong leadership skills are scarce (Cafolla, 2008). According to Goleman (2001), EQ might predict up to 90% of the variance in leadership effectiveness by uncovering strong positive effects of leadership commitment and effectiveness that support strong influences on leadership effectiveness. This modified Delphi study extended research on the emotional intelligence competencies to explore future possibilities of improving leadership success at mid- to high-level management tiers. The results of this study provide evidence to support emotional intelligence and leadership potential, validating the need for EQ as a leadership strategy. The Delphi study results recommended training to increase EQ in leaders and asserted that leaders with high levels of EQ are likely to improve overall organizational results, reduce turnover, reduce fraud and low performance, improve moral, and make organizations a better place to work. </p>

<p>In emerging economies, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are threatened by continuous political and economic changes. In such uncertain environments, knowledge is the distinctive factor for the achievement of a competitive advantage. However, limited funds and pressure from competitors force SMEs to seek for external sources of knowledge. </p><p> The Multinational Corporation (MNC) represents an alternative for business sustainability within the value chain, including both suppliers and clients. In the aim for pursuing such endeavor, a conceptual framework including inter-firm knowledge transfer processes from the MNC and experiential learning enhanced by the Academia is explored. </p><p> In sum, this dissertation is intended to examine the MNC&rsquo;s and Academia&rsquo;s role on the procurement of SMEs&rsquo; business sustainability through inter-firm knowledge transfer and experiential learning, in terms of absorptive capacity. More specifically, the impact of technical and technological knowledge transferred from the MNC on one side; and reflective learning on managerial skills and business vision from the Academia on the other side, is analyzed through SMEs&rsquo; absorptive capacity. Regarding business sustainability, the effect of the application of newly absorbed knowledge is analyzed in terms of SMEs&rsquo; selected indicators for business improvements. As a complement, a qualitative study is included in order to provide support for findings hereby obtained. </p>

<p> Women account for more than 50% of college graduates, more than 50% of professional degrees such as M.D. and J.D., and more than 50.0% of management, professional, and related occupations (Labor, 2011). However, women hold only 14.3% of executive officer positions of the Fortune 500 companies, and the number of female CEOs at these companies is 3.8% (Catalyst, 2012). Given these statistics, a natural shift to a more gender-balanced senior management should be a reasonable, expected outcome. </p><p> In addition, research in the past decade lead by Daniel Goleman (1995, 2000, 2004) has identified an individual's emotional intelligence as a key aspect and driver of leadership effectiveness. Emotional intelligence assessments have found women and men to be equally as intelligent emotionally, but they are strong in different areas or attributes which are considered gender-specific. </p><p> This mixed method phenomenological study was grounded in research by Goleman (1998, 2000, 2004) and Bar-On (2005) which explored emotional intelligence as it relates to leadership and success in organizations. The purpose of this research study was to apply Goleman's leadership theory and Bar-On's gender-related emotional intelligence in a way that examines the possible relationship between gender-specific emotional intelligence attributes and women's career advancement in a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company. </p><p> Twelve participants at four levels of the company were selected &ndash; vice president, director, manager, and administrative assistant. Each participant completed the EQ-i 2.0 assessment followed by a 30-minute in-depth interview. The data was analyzed to assess specific EQ attributes, and to understand each participant's lived experiences with leadership, emotional intelligence, and gender bias or barriers. </p><p> Women at the vice president level had group mean EQ scores that were higher in the male-specific EQ attributes, and women at the manager level had group mean EQ scores that were higher in female-specific attributes, which suggests that women adapt their EQ attributes as they rise to ranks of leadership. To help close the leadership gap and address barriers that women face, the researcher recommends that organizations provide diversity training, mentoring programs, robust talent management, EQ education and training, and leadership support from the top.</p>

In this dissertation, the risk adjusted rate of return (RAROR) that utilizes the directional distance function (DDF) approaches is developed to integrate conventional RAROR in a consistent manner. The sensitivity and the probabilistic analysis for DDF-RAROR are also illustrated. The DDF-RAROR is used to evaluate security performance of media stocks (1997--2001). Conglomeration in media industry has attracted public concern for a century. The results indicate that stock investors prefer conglomerate stocks, and this preference is explained by the market sentiment rather than by the underlying business prospect. This observation is confirmed through both nonparametric ranking test and nonparametric regression technique. Especially, the underlying return on equity (ROE) significantly influences the corresponding security performance.

<p> Family businesses represent a key economical asset in the global economy. Leaders of family businesses have implemented internationalization as a key strategy to enhance sustainability and increase profitability in a hypercompetitive global marketplace. Guided by the Uppsala model, the purpose of this case study was to explore how Saudi family business leaders have planned and implemented internationalization. Three leaders from different international Saudi family businesses participated in semistructured interviews. The participants described their experience in achieving successful internationalization for their family businesses. After analyzing the interview data and validating through member checking, 3 main themes emerged: (a) the characteristics of the family business to compete internationally, (b) the characteristics of a suitable international market for family businesses to internationalize, and (c) the characteristics of a successful internationalization opportunity for a Saudi family business. In order to internationalize, Saudi family business leaders identified having a proper strategy, financial capability, qualified resources, well-structured policies, and globally-standardized products or services. Family business leaders should target the international market that is stable, that is secure with regulations, and that is welcoming to foreign investments. Each internationalization opportunity should have close psychic distance, available relationships in the international market, targeted family business motives, demonstrated existing market demand with the ability to satisfy, and proper timing. The findings may promote social change in Saudi family businesses by identifying essential characteristics to maintain the companies' existence and offer a roadmap to compete internationally.</p>

This thesis analyses several contracts which regulate the relationship between organizations which own or operate remote-sensing satellites and the organizations which receive satellite transmitted data. / The first part is a descriptive part which stresses the importance of the national environment. / The second part deals with the study of the contracts. Those which are commercially oriented are very elaborated in order to create a team spirit with the local organization. It starts with a study of the evolution of the Landsat contracts when this satellite was alone of its kind in the Western world. Then it studies the impact on the contracts of the early commercialization process and compares the new contracts with those established by newly arrived and competing organizations in the market. Finally, it studies similar provisions set by the European system and by the Canadian system. / The third part focuses on the impact of the copyright conventions on remote-sensing data protection. It shows that even though this protection is expressed by means of various warnings and "ad-hoc" clauses, this protection is still mostly formal.

<p> This study explored authentic leadership behaviors to determine if the behaviors would relate to follower satisfaction with supervisor, overall job satisfaction and the intent to quit and in age groups of 20-24, 25-34 and 35 and over and predict the same relationships in age groups of 20-24 and 25-34. The intent was to determine if authentic leaders could positively affect the intent to quit in younger workers that in turn may attenuate turnover. This non-experimental quantitative study significantly supported the relationship to and the prediction between authentic leadership behaviors, follower satisfaction with supervisor, overall job satisfaction and a lower intent to quit. Age groups did not significantly moderate the relationships. This study demonstrated that authentic leaders significantly related to and predicted follower satisfaction with supervisor, overall job satisfaction and the intent to quit with all age groups, suggesting that authentic leaders may attenuate turnover, including younger workers.</p>

<p> Some managers lack an effective strategy for aligning sales promotion strategies with consumers' buying attitudes in a recession. The intent of this comparative design was to determine the most effective sales promotion strategy for sales improvement and business sustainability during a recession. The theories of (a) sales promotions, (b) consumer behavioral metrics, (c) price reductions, and (d) strategy in a competitive environment represented the theoretical framework that grounded and complemented this research. Using a confidential paper-based survey and random sampling method, preference data were obtained from 287 consumers in retail stores located in a city in the southern United States. This analysis comprised examining the effects of types of sales promotions and gender of customers. Statistical tests for the data analysis encompassed a 4X2 ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc tests for mean pairs. The principal findings from the analysis were that there is a significant difference in buying attitudes means among the 4 types of sales promotion in a recession [<i>F</i>(3, 279) = 101.360; <i>p</i> = .000 &lt; .001; <i>Partial &eegr;&sup2;</i> = .522]. However, there is no significant difference in buying attitudes means in a recession [<i> F</i>(1, 279) = .000; <i>p</i> = .999 > .05; <i>Partial &eegr;&sup2; </i> = .000] between genders. Price discount strategy had a higher buying attitudes mean than did any other type of sales promotion under study for both genders. The most effective strategy for aligning sales promotions with buying attitudes in a recession is price discount. Implications for business practice and positive social change include the sales increase in a recession, improvement of lifestyle of individuals, and reduction of negative tendencies such as crime and poverty associated with unemployment. </p>

<p> Women have a low level of representation in the construction industry, even though they are nearly half of the U.S. workforce. This study sought to understand the motivation processes and successful work outcome strategies of woman leaders in construction, many of whom created a niche and advanced in the workforce. The specific research question was: What may be learned from a study of the motivational processes and successful work outcome strategies used by successful woman leaders in the construction industry in a Northwestern U.S. city? Limited information exists in the literature on woman leaders in the construction industry as it relates to motivation processes and successful work outcome strategies. No peer-reviewed articles located discussed the effectiveness of motivational practices and success strategies. The literature review focused upon the theory of purposeful work behavior. A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted to interview 15 woman leaders in construction. The results reveal that woman leaders in construction are strong and resilient, need strong support systems, and still face many roadblocks. Recommendation for future research include a replication of the study in the fields of medicine, aerospace, banking, finance, and maritime. The information gathered in this study will aid future researchers and spur further research in the field of women in construction.</p>