"The American Dream" is an expression familiar to all Americans and the realization of the American Dream is tied closely to homeownership (Clinton, 1995). The recent financial crisis, with the housing and financial markets at levels not seen since the Great Depression, has resulted in widespread unemployment, continually dropping home prices, escalating home foreclosures, and tightened lending standards. Significant changes in the home buying behavior of Americans since the start of the crisis are clear but it is not clear if overall perceptions of homeownership have become more negative in the wake of this catastrophe (Joint Center for Housing Studies [JCHS], 2011). Might the marriage of homeownership and the American Dream be a thing of the past? The echo-boomer generation (defined as those born after 1980) comprises the largest group of Americans ever to reach their twenties���peak household formation years. They will play a critical role in the face of American housing in the years to come (JCHS, 2011). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether homeownership remains a goal for members of the echo-boomer generation. The population of interest for this study was college students in the United States who are members of the echo-boomer generation. A chain-referral sampling technique resulted in a non-random sample of 256 participants, ranging in age from 18 to 21. Participants were predominantly white non-Hispanic, single females who rented their residences. Most were undergraduate students representing 35 majors. An on-line questionnaire was used that included both closed and open-ended questions grouped around four primary research questions. (1) Do members of this population view homeownership as a safe investment? Simply put, yes. When asked directly, most participants responded "very safe" or "somewhat safe." Stepwise logistic regression was used to explore the predictor variables for this response. Predictor variables with p<.05 included participants��� expectation of the future direction of housing prices and of the economy, their preferred housing tenure, and whether homeownership was part of their own definition of the American Dream. (2) What is the preferred housing tenure form amongst members of this population? A large majority of participants indicated that they preferred homeownership to renting. Logistic regression analysis suggested strong association between preferred housing tenure and whether the participants viewed homeownership as a safe investment, as well as their belief about which housing tenure form made the most sense for them, and the adequacy of their income. (3) Is Homeownership in the Future Plans of College Student Echo-Boomers? The answer to this question was an emphatic yes. Ninety-three percent of current renters claim future plans to own their homes and 58% of current owners say that they will never rent. Logistic regression (p<.05) found that respondents' current tenure form and tenure preference, as well as their belief in the safety of investment in homeownership were predictors of future housing tenure intentions. (4) Do members of this population view homeownership as part of the "American Dream?" When asked explicitly whether owning a home is part of their own personal American Dream, a large majority of of respondents said yes. Logistic regression analysis found that predictors of this view (p<.05) included expectations of rent prices, age, preferred tenure form, and whether participants saw homeownership as a safe investment. This study was grounded in a social constructionist theoretical framework. Among the social constructions of housing is a deep-seated preference for homeownership as the ideal tenure form. Everyday discourse serves to accentuate the positive aspects of homeownership along with the negative aspects of renting (Gurney,1999). In spite of a deep financial crisis and the heightened role of housing in it, homeownership seems to continue as the preferred housing tenure form among the echo-boom generation. Importantly, homeownership as the embodiment of the American Dream seems to have been unaffected by the crisis. / Graduation date: 2012

Presently there are four generational cohorts in the workplace. Born from 1977 to 1997, the youngest cohort group, referred to as Generation Y (or Gen Y) in this study, has 81 million members, of whom over 29 million are already in the workplace. The importance of leader-subordinate relationships in the workplace has been confirmed; in recognizing this, leaders must identify and adapt to the changing era-shaped needs of employees, who cannot fully participate in organizational life if their most urgent needs are not being met. Because Gen Y employees are only now entering the workforce, little is actually known about the workplace needs of this cohort group. This study attempted to determine leadership needs of a Gen Y cohort as a means to enhance workplace relationships in the 21st century organization. A sequential, mixed methods study was employed to explore leadership preferences of a Gen Y cohort. Initially, focus group interviews were used to generate leadership themes. Based on these themes, an instrument was designed, and Gen Y business students from three higher education institutions were surveyed. Confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL software was used to test the themes. The driving force behind this research design was to build a foundation of understanding through inductive research (qualitative) and to test and enrich the foundation through deductive means (quantitative).

The purpose of this research is to empirically investigate consumers' health care decision choices in a dynamic market setting. The unprecedented demands on the U.S. health care system coupled with the mounting controversies surrounding health care reform suggest that consumers' health care decisions warrant empirical research attention. Toward this end, this dissertation empirically explored (1) the characteristics of consumers who possess a willingness to use non-conventional treatments over conventional treatments, (2) the characteristics of consumers who elect self-medication in lieu of health care practitioner-directed medication, and (3) the salient dimensions of consumers' channel choice for the procurement of health care products. Each of these decision choice factors were tested across two U.S. generational segments to assess whether differences existed across Baby Boomers' and Gen Yers' health care decision choices. The conceptual framework for empirical assessment is Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory. From Bandura's social cognitive theory, a general model of healthcare decision choice is proposed to assess consumers' states of mind, states of being and states of action (decision choice). Results indicate that social cognitive factors (e.g., self-efficacy, objectivism) play an important role in each of the decision domains explored in this dissertation. Moreover, health value was found to be an important moderator between the social cognitive factors and health care decision choices. The predictors of the health care decision choices were found to vary across the Baby Boomers and Generation Yers on several dimensions, confirming the notion that generational differences may be a salient dimension of consumers' health care decision choice. The research offers several implications for practitioners, academicians and policy makers. Both descriptive and normative implications are gleaned from the research findings. Most notably, the results indicate that consumers' social cognitive factors and health value may be mechanisms for managing health care decisions.

Mobile phone usage has grown rapidly and is widely used as an advertising channel. Both short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) are typically used for mobile advertising. The goals of this study are to examine the determinants of attitudes toward mobile advertising in an apparel context and subsequent impact on behavior intention and to investigate the effects of modality and culture on attitudes toward apparel mobile advertising. Results indicate that entertainment, informativeness, irritation, and credibility are determinants of attitudes toward apparel mobile advertising, and attitudes can explain behavioral intention at least in part. Perceived entertainment is different between SMS and MMS apparel mobile advertising, and perceived entertainment, informativeness, irritation, and credibility are different between U.S. and Korea participants.