The issue of dimensions of quality has received very little attention in the marketing literature. This dissertation studies the impact selected individual dimensions of quality has on firm performance. The study examined the relation between product, service and image based dimensions of quality and firm performance. The performance measure utilized in this study was a firm's return on investment (ROI). Sample for the study included Strategic Business Units (SBUs) involved in the manufacture of consumer goods and industrial capital goods. A theoretical framework that details performance effects of selected variables was developed. Drawing upon previous research in Marketing, Management, Economics, and Strategic Planning, propositions and hypotheses were developed. The data required to test the hypotheses was obtained from the PIMS data base of the Strategic Planning Institute. Several GLM procedures including ANOVA, ANCOVA, and Multiple Comparison tests, such as SNK, Tukey and Bonferroni, were employed to test the various operational hypothesis. The results show that product and image based dimensions of quality impact RoT differentially for consumer goods and industrial capital goods. The extent of the difference depends on the order of market entry and the product's stage in the product life cycle. On the other hand, service based dimensions of quality did not impact ROI differentially for pioneers and non-pioneers. Similar results was found across stages of the product life cycle.

This study is one of five such studies dealing with the general subject of growth which have been undertaken recently in the School of Business of North Texas State College. This study is the third in the series and is concerned, as were the previous studies, with the general subject of growth. However, this third study is concerned with the compound annual rates of growth, during definite economic epochs, of net profit after taxes for more than 150 prominent corporations. The problem involved in this study is threefold: (1) to determine what constitutes growth, (2) to determine which corporations are growing, and (3) to determine as nearly as possible the growth characteristics of the corporations employed.

The first problem involved in this study is to determine what growth is. The second problem of this thesis is to determine the characteristics of growth during the previous economic epochs. The third problem is to determine what companies are growing. This will be accomplished by the use of a representative list of American corporations.

The Securities and Exchange Conunission (1974) has stated that the one of the fundamental underpinnings of federal securities law is the external auditor opinion of registrant financial statements. The SEC believes that the corporate practice of voluntary auditor change may be perceived by the investing public as attempted opinion shopping. The monitoring hypothesis of Jensen and Meckling (1976), on the other hand, posits that companies may change auditors in an attempt to control net agency costs. The objective of this dissertation is determine if the monitoring hypothesis is descriptive of the phenomenon of voluntary auditor change. The monitoring hypothesis posits that changes in net agency costs are related to the change in auditor quality at the time of an auditor change. and that both changes in agency costs and change in auditor quality are related to the market reaction to the auditor change. Auditor changes from 1980 to 1986 for New York Stock Exchange and American Stock Exchange companies were analyzed. The results indicate that changes in agency costs are related to change in auditor quality, as measured by the difference, from the old auditor to the new, in the auditor's share of the industry audit fees for the company that is changing auditors. Significant variables that measure changes in agency costs aregrowth in company sales, change in long-term compensation plans, and change in the dividend payout ratio. The results also indicate that changes in agency costs are related to market reaction to a change in auditors, but that the change in auditor quality is not. Variables that are significant in explaining the relationship are change in the debt ratio, change in the holdings of the largest stockholder, and prior receipt of a qualified opinion or disclosure of a disagreement between the company and the previous auditor. The results provide strong support for the monitoring hypothesis and weak support for the opinion shopping hypothesis. / Ph. D.

This research tests for persistence in tax generated earnings changes. Earnings persistence is indicated by the capitalization of earnings by securities markets. This research disaggregates accounting earnings and examines the security markets’ evaluation of the relative permanence or transience of the component of earnings resulting from revenue law changes. Two proxies for tax generated earnings changes are evaluated though an examination of earnings response coefficients. The results indicate that tax generated earnings changes are not expected to persist beyond two accounting periods, and may reflect the ability of firms to manage tax earnings. / Ph. D.