This thesis focuses on the decision making in the most common business form: family businesses. A well-established theoretical model within the family business field is The three circle-model, which is based on three different dimensions: family, ownership and business. Most of the family businesses stay small but the ones expanding face the dilemma of balancing the best development of the dimensions. However, these three dimensions can contradict each other and as a result the founders are forced to choose which of the dimensions to prioritize when taking decisions.The purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of how the family, the ownership and the business dimensions affect founders thoughts and reasoning behind decisions in the expansion phase in first generation family firms with few owners.We have reached the conclusions with a qualitative approach using case studies. We have gathered the empirical data by using Life story and Critical incident to define expansion decisions in two companies. Furthermore we used semi-structured interviews with the aim of creating an understanding of the founders thoughts and reasoning behind the taken decisions.Our conclusion shows that business opportunities and the objective to remain in control of the family business highly influence the decision making during the expansion phase. Another conclusion is that the family has been affected far more by the decisions than it has had an impact on the decisions. The thesis gives insight about an area within the family business field, which previously has been neglected by researchers.

The ACME collaboration has completed a measurement setting a new upper limit on the size of the electron's permanent electric dipole moment (EDM). The existence of the EDM is well motivated by theories extending the standard model of particle physics, with predicted sizes very close to the current experimental limit. The new limit was set by measuring spin precession within the metastable H state of the polar molecule thorium monoxide (ThO). A particular focus here is on the automated data acquisition system developed to search for a precession phase odd under internal and external reversal of the electric field. Automated switching of many different experimental controls allowed a rapid diagnosis of major systematics, including the dominant systematic caused by non-reversing electric fields and laser polarization gradients. Polarimetry measurements made it possible to quantify and minimize the polarization gradients in our state preparation and probe lasers. Three separate measurements were used to determine the electric field that did not reverse when we tried to switch the field direction. The new bound of |de|< 8.7 &times; 10^-29 e cm is over an order of magnitude smaller than previous limits, and strongly limits T-violating physics at TeV energy scales. / Physics

This mixed-methods study examined the effectiveness of the Upward Bound TRIO program in preparing a low-income and first-generation population for the successful completion of high school and acceptance into postsecondary institutions of higher learning. Data collection methods for this study were comprised of teacher and student surveys and program director interviews. A comparison of two Upward Bound programs was conducted in the southern regions of Virginia and Georgia. The results were analyzed and queried as to whether the current program objectives were effective in meeting the needs of low-income, first-generation students and whether the program provided the necessary academic and technological skillsets and support needed to gain employment in knowledge capital economy. The goal of Upward Bound is to increase the rate at which participants complete secondary education and enroll in institutions of higher learning. The significance of this study is that it offers insight on the necessary support structures needed to assist low-income and first-generation students. The study was an in depth analysis of the Upward Bound TRIO program’s current objectives in meeting the needs of the 21st century learner. Information gathered from the literary sources as well as other sources provides additional insight for the researcher on program practice, evaluation, efficiency, and low-income first-generation students’ success.

Cultural capital facilitators are an unexplored phenomenon in the higher education literature despite their crucial presence on community college campuses. Through the use of social capital theory, social networks, and cultural capital theory, this study explores the role that cultural capital facilitators play in first-generation, community college student information acquisition and ultimate success. Multiple qualitative methods are utilized to discover the cultural capital facilitator characteristics and attributes, social networks and types of cultural capital information shared between first-generation students and cultural capital facilitators. Implications for community college practitioners are also presented in terms of the role that classroom instructors play as cultural capital facilitators as well as the characteristics and attributes that these individuals can acquire through professional development opportunities. Finally, the interconnectedness of cultural capital facilitators' social networks and the domination of academic, cultural capital information are elaborated on for community college personnel in their examination of structural and functional barriers to first-generation student success.

First-generation students and students of lower socioeconomic status often prepare for postsecondary education without the benefit of information provided by their families, resulting in lower levels of college access (Lundberg, 2007). Few researchers have sought to understand how potential first-generation college students might go about obtaining the necessary information for a successful transition to college. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine to whom students talk about college and to explore the potential reciprocal relationship between resources for and information about college provided by others and students’ educational beliefs. This dissertation consisted of two empirical studies. In the first study, the composition of students’ networks and differences in social capital were examined among middle and high school students from a rural Appalachian school district (N = 388). Students reported to whom they talked about college and answered questions about each person that they named. Junior and senior high school students spoke to fewer individuals about college than middle grades students. Senior high school students spoke to individuals in their networks more frequently than middle grades students. Boys spoke to fewer individuals about college than girls. Boys received fewer pieces of information about college compared to girls. Potential first-generation college students had fewer individuals in their network who had completed a college degree. The purpose of the second study was to examine the relationship between students’ college information networks and students’ beliefs about college. Participants were 364 students in Grades 6-12 from a rural Appalachian school district. Information on students’ college information networks was collected to better understand the relationship among first-generation college students’ access to social capital, their college-going self-efficacy, and their educational aspirations. College-going self-efficacy and educational aspirations were both significant predictors of available social capital. Social capital was not a significant predictor of students’ educational beliefs. College cultural capital was a significant predictor of students’ social capital and educational beliefs. Results of this dissertation are discussed relative to social cognitive theory and suggestions for educational interventions and future research are offered.

This study seeks to explore the relationship between intercultural communication experiences and college persistence in first-generation college students from the Central Appalachian region. Because Appalachia has a rich and unique culture, which is often misunderstood, the literature review seeks to establish a basis for studying this relationship as a way to understand the multi-dimensional nature of low-educational attainment in the Appalachian region, particularly Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Using a survey-based quantitative method this study examines Appalachian first generation students attending college as an intercultural communication process through the frame of acculturation theory. Specifically, the study seeks information about the students’ previous intercultural communication experiences, cultural identity, intercultural sensitivity, and college persistence. This study attempts to predict first generation, Appalachian students’ college persistence with their previous intercultural communication experiences, cultural identity, and intercultural sensitivity.

Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) provided a theoretical framework for the present study. Students’ beliefs in their abilities to perform academic tasks (i.e., academic self-efficacy; Solberg, O’Brien, Villarreal, Kennell, & Davis, 1993) and to make career-related decisions (i.e., career decision self-efficacy; Betz & Taylor, 2001) are influential in their completion of college. College students with limited financial resources and those who do not have a family member in an older generation who graduated from college may not experience the same degree of efficacy as those students with greater financial resources or a college graduate role model in their families (Horn & Nuñez, 2000; Oliver, Rodriguez, & Mickleson, 1985; Wohlgemuth et al., 2006-2007). The present study tested two hypotheses: 1) First-generation college students will express lower levels of academic self-efficacy and career decision self-efficacy than continuing-generation college students; and 2) College students with high financial stress will express lower levels of academic self-efficacy and career decision self-efficacy than those with low financial stress. A 2 x 3 factorial multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. Significant results of the MANOVA were explored using descriptive discriminant function analysis. Three post-hoc analyses were also completed. The results revealed no significant differences on levels of academic or career decision self-efficacy based on generational status, however, differences in both forms of self-efficacy were found based on financial stress. Strengths and limitations, implications for theory and counseling, and directions for future research are discussed. Consistent with SCCT, the salient factor of financial stress has an influence on college students’ academic self-efficacy and career decision self-efficacy. Contrary to much of the past research, one’s generational status does not have an influence on these two variables. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.