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This study provides current, comprehensive information about the formal human resource strategic planning practices of major U.S. corporations and examines the impact of this planning on organization performance. The research in this study was carried out in two phases. Phase one consisted of a mail survey to identify firms using formal human resource strategic planning processes. Questionnaires were mailed to the Vice President of Personnel/Human Resources in each firm listed in the 1981 Fortune 500 Directory. The second part of this study consisted of a comparison between the performance of the sample firms using formal human resource strategic planning processes and non-users of such systems. The performance measures used in the study were sales growth, earnings growth, earnings/sales ratio, return on investment, earnings/employee, assets/employees, earnings/labor costs, and labor costs/employees. Data from the Standard and Poor's 1981 Compustat Tapes were used to calculate these measures. Two approaches to data analysis were undertaken. The first analysis consisted of a two-way multivariate analysis of variance, using industry groupings and formal human resource strategic planners versus non-human resource strategic planners as the independent variables, and five-year average on the eight performance measures as the dependent variables. The second analysis consisted of a comparison of five-year performance prior to the introduction of formal human resource strategic planning with both five-year and ten-year post human resource strategic planning performance. The results of these two analyses indicated no significant differences between the performance of firms using formal human resource strategic planning and firms that do not. Formal human resource strategic planning is still in its infancy. Few firms have developed the fully-integrated processes outlined in the literature. Fifty-five percent of the respondent firms initiated human resource strategic planning after 1976. The results show that larger firms are more likely to engage in formal human resource strategic planning. While the trend appears to be toward greater adoption of formal processes, the results presented in this study suggest that organizations have yet to reap the benefits of such planning.

Abstract not available

People used to be fiscally conservative and shopping used to be very easily satisfied by the consumers due to its economic malaise. But because of higher income and better living quality these days, People have the tendency of spending more money for a more luxurious services like the old days. As a result, tranditional department stores have changed and improved their ways of dealing with customers by developing new formulaion of hardware and software. And in combination of corporation¡¦s new technology, new ways of shopping method has been formed. They call it the ¡§business community¡¨. This is a study from ¡§diamond model¡¨ by Micheal E.Porter in 1990. He stated that in order to win the market over, you need to find out what consumers and the market are looking for. You need to find out what consumers and the market are looking for. You¡¦ll also have to know who your rivals sre and what elements are required for this project. Of course once you have an idea of it all, you will know much capital you need in order to establish your own business. Survey was taken from three main cities in which are Taipei, Taichung, and Kaoshiong areas in Taiwan. Thirty different stores in the survey were used to see which ones the consumers desire the most. This research has found and shown what are needed in order to improve the sales volume for the tranditional department stores, what tranditional department stores are facing these days, and the roles that are played by the government and the competitors. Especially the government, they hold every right to allow or disallow your business. That makes them the protagonist of it all. Every enterprise has its pros and cons. However, when it comes to increasing their sales volume and development, the government¡¦s participation is strongly suggested in order to give out better ideas and advice.

Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2007. / "Publication number AAT 3281731"

This study examines restructuring in which, (i) two firms exchange operating units (asset-for-asset exchanges), and (ii) a firm divests assets in exchange for an equity stake in the firm acquiring the assets (asset-for-stock exchanges). These transactions are called asset exchanges, as distinct from divestitures primarily for cash. Since liquidity is not the primary consideration, asset exchanges are more suitable than sales of assets for cash when examining the role of synergy in the divestiture decision. An asset-for-stock exchange is similar to a partial merger and creates an alternative form of cooperative strategy and organization to mergers and joint ventures. We do not find evidence of gains to firms in asset-for-asset exchanges. While portfolios of divestors and acquirers in asset-for-stock exchanges gain, an analysis of matched pairs of firms in each transaction reveals that both firms gain only in a third of all cases. Overall, an asset-for-stock exchange leads to an increase in the combined value of the divestor and the acquirer. The gains in dollar value terms are fairly large relative to the gains in takeovers. The sharing of gains is related to the percentage of stock acquired, appointment by the divestor of directors on the acquirer's board, voting restrictions on stock, the use of cash as a part of the consideration and the financial condition of the divested unit. The results of this study suggest that returns to firms undertaking asset exchanges cannot be explained by synergistic motives alone and indicates a need to examine other possible motives in asset exchanges as well as in other forms of divestitures.

This study examines individual decision making in financial contexts. Specifically, the study investigates basic propositions of Prospect Theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979) in a variety of decision making contexts that are often faced by corporate managers. In addition, the research explores the effects of ruinous losses, multiple reference points, and prior gains and losses on financial decision making. It was hypothesized that (1) decision makers' risk behavior will be risk avoiding in gain situations and risk seeking in loss situations, (2) prior gains and losses will differentially impact risk taking/avoiding behavior, (3) decision makers will switch from risk seeking to risk avoiding in the presence of ruinous losses (i.e. bankruptcy), and (4) managers' risky behavior will be affected by both target and current levels of performance. Seven experiments were conducted which required experienced corporate managers to choose between alternative investment proposals that varied in their degree of risk. From these choices, risk taking or avoiding behavior was inferred. Results indicated that financial managers exhibit risk taking as well as risk avoiding behavior. Across a variety of investment settings, experienced managers display an underlying tendency towards risk avoidance. However, decision contexts that clearly involve financial losses or offer returns well below potential reference points result in risk taking behavior. In addition, risk behavior was influenced by various contextual factors. The presence of prior outcomes affected risky choices, with greater risk avoidance occurring when prior losses were recently experienced. Managers also switched from risk taking when faced with loss alternatives, to risk avoiding when those losses potentially became ruinous. Finally, corporate managers' risk behavior was influenced by the joint consideration of both current and target levels of performance.

A growing body of evidence has accumulated on the behavior of volatility for pricing data on a variety of different financial assets. Twenty-four-hour currency markets are a particularly useful vehicle for examining the relationship between information and asset volatility--in part because the distinction between public and private information is clearly defined in the foreign exchange market. This study provides a comprehensive examination of the effect of public news on inter- and intra-day exchange-rate return variances. Unlike previous studies, the impacts of both U.S. and foreign macroeconomic news announcements are examined in the spot and futures currency markets--for the yen, pound, and mark. The relationship between news and volatility is first examined using variance ratio tests over trading and non-trading periods. Second, diffusion and jump-diffusion process models are developed which contain parameters conditional on the release of news. These models are estimated using the method of maximum likelihood and are compared to equivalent unconditional models using likelihood ratio tests. Results from this study provide insight into the relationship between public information and currency market volatility. Variance ratio tests indicate that U.S. news releases have a greater impact on currency variance than foreign news releases. In addition, trading/non-trading variance patterns are found to differ between the spot and futures markets--particularly for the yen. Market liquidity differences and the timing of public news announcements are shown to be factors which can explain whether the spot or futures markets reflect the arrival of public information first. The impact of public macroeconomic news releases on volatility is also shown to be concentrated in the period immediately surrounding the announcement. Maximum-likelihood estimation of diffusion and jump-diffusion process models reveals that simple models, conditional on ex ante macroeconomic news announcements, better explain the currency return generating process than equivalent unconditional models. Over the period studied, merchandise trade balance and industrial production announcements had a greater impact on volatility than money supply or inflation announcements. Finally, the correlation between the yen, pound, and mark was highest on days of U.S. macroeconomic news.

Past research on Top Management Team (TMT) consensus has investigated relationships between consensus on strategic goals and means and organizational performance. The process of setting goals and selecting the means to compete is known as deliberate strategy. However, strategy making includes not only deliberate planning but also the interactive learning of top managers and others as they handle emergent events. Therefore, TMT consensus is important not only on deliberate strategies, but also on the underlying logic that guides emergent strategies. Recent theory suggests these are the two primary forms of consensus: consensus on goals and means and consensus on organizational capabilities. Consensus on goals and means is significant because of its influence on deliberate strategy, while consensus on organizational capabilities is important for managing emergent adaptation. Both forms of consensus play a key role in realizing a desired level of organizational performance, and the importance of one type of consensus or the other will vary depending upon certain contingencies. The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically test relationships between both forms of consensus and organizational performance while considering the influence of three contingencies: the environment, strategic discretion and strategic approach. Previous research provided the theoretical basis for the study and the anticipated relationships. The contingencies were used as a framework to develop propositions. Ten hypotheses were developed from these propositions. The research context was the hotel industry. Three dimensions of the environment in five hotel market segments were identified. Primary data were collected from TMT members at 44 hotels. When tested, three of four hypotheses concerning the environment were rejected, indicating the environment has less to do with consensus and organizational performance than suggested. Support for the hypotheses regarding strategic discretion was found, signifying the choice to franchise or not has a strong effect upon consensus. Clear support was found for three of the hypotheses regarding strategic approach. Unconfirmed, weak support was found for the fourth. The strategic approach results suggest that consensus surrounding primary strategies is closely linked with organizational performance.