The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among student civic knowledge scores and several different variables each at the student, classroom/school, and national levels using the IEA CIVED study international data set collected in 1999 from 27 countries. The student level predictors included two elements of socioeconomic status (a student's parental education, their home literacy level measured by the number of books at home), student's perception of an open classroom climate, student aspiration of obtaining higher education, and other variables that were identified as relevant to the dependent variable in the literature. The classroom/school level predictors included teacher's degree in civics, in-service training, teaching confidence, and school safety in addition to the compositional variable created as the classroom/school averages by aggregating the student level variables. Then I investigated whether instructional methods focusing on the student activities the teacher employed in the classroom and an open classroom climate were associated after accounting for the above student and school level background variables. National level variables such as GNP, GINI index, democratic system, public education expenditure, and etc. as well as compositional variables obtained by aggregating the classroom/school variables were also added to the model to investigate if they were associated with students' civic knowledge scores and whether they could explain between nations variability. The study used a three-level hierarchical linear model to analyze the data, with number of students, N=56,579, number of classrooms/schools, J=3443, and number of countries, K=27. Some of the key findings was that there were significant variations of civics knowledge among nations, and significant variations of civic knowledge scores between school and within nations, no statistically significant association between teacher's practice and civics knowledge scores, however the student perception of an open classroom climate was significant at all 3 levels. These findings were interpreted in terms of policies and practices that could be implemented to improve students' civic knowledge. / Ph. D.

Health and well-being of older adults has become a worldwide public health concern and has been attracting increasing attention from scholars across the globe. But little is known about the health of the Chinese elderly. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) --Pilot, a pilot survey in 2008 in two provinces of China, Gansu and Zhejiang, this dissertation examines the association between social capital at both the individual- and community- levels and three health outcomes among older adults in China. A series of multi-level models were estimated using SAS 9.2. Statistical results indicate that such individual-level social capital variables as perceived help and support in the future, help from others, and birthplace significantly impacted health among older Chinese adults. When examining the relationship between community-level social capital and health, this study confirms the significant association between community-level social capital and good health independent of individual-level predictors. This study also indicates that the impact of gender and rural-urban Hukou status interacts with the province of residence. The results were discussed in terms of cultural legacy in the Chinese cultural setting, the current social dynamics related to old age support, health-related government reforms, and various disparities across different regions and across different social groups in China.

This dissertation examines the relationship among practices and policies of waste/ing and economic structures to make visible the implications of vehicle disposal policies for environmental policy and theory. Consequently, I attempt to build upon the small body of literature that is now critically engaging with waste production and resulting actions/inaction in the form of policies of management. In doing this I use waste as a lens to examine the interrelationships among environmental degradation and economic and political structures. Further, I examine these phenomena in relation to a physical object, the automobile, to add materiality to abstract notions of waste as it relates to both the political and the economic. Through vehicle recycling policies, I analyze how underlying economic structures in contemporary capitalism result in specific responses to the "problems" of waste as well as how the related responses, or "solutions" perpetuate an un-ecological industrial system which severely restricts the possibilities of making substantial change in the production of environmental harms. / Ph. D.

The "digital library" (DL) is a communication technology that has the potential to improve communication by removing temporal and geographic barriers and by introducing interactivity. This research focused on the adoption of digital libraries for electronic theses and dissertations (ETD-DL) at universities worldwide. ETD-DLs provide a means for universities to learn about implementing digital libraries in a networked environment.This research used diffusion of innovation theory to explore what has influenced ETD-DL adoption among Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) member universities. Communication channels were categorized as being either interpersonal or mediated. The perceived importance of these channels was assessed both within and between organizations. Although ETD-DL adoption is an organizational level decision it has implications for both the university and members of the university community. In some cases, these outcomes may be in conflict; for example, what is best for the organization may result in complications for an individual. Therefore the perceived importance of two innovation attributes, relative advantage and compatibility, were examined at both the collective and individual level.This study employed a web-based survey to collect data from the 133 universities in 26 countries that were NDLTD members in December 2002. Respondents were members of the university's "ETD Committee" and represented academic administrators, faculty, librarians, and computer systemsspecialists. Surveys were received from 95 respondents representing 65 universities in 14 countries. Twenty-one of these universities were outside the United States. Universities were from countries with a wide range of economic development.Results provide insights into university attitudes towards a technological innovation for knowledge dissemination. For example, results suggest that interpersonal channels of communication are more important than mediated channels within the organization. Additionally, interpersonal channels are more important for communication within the organization than between organizations. However, mediated channels of communication are more important for those universities that have decided to adopt the ETD-DL but have not yet implemented the union catalog or self-archiving options. There were also significant differences in the importance attributed to these channels by individuals in different jobs. The results also suggest strategies that could encourage development of digital libraries within a social system.

Prisons are a specific type of organization with distinct challenges for their management. Most importantly, prisons - as well as understandings of how to 'successfully' manage them - are embedded in a pluralistic environment that consists of a variety of stakeholders with different ideas and expectations with regard to role and governance of prisons. This study addresses the question of which different understandings of 'good' prison management can be found in the Austrian discourse and how the expected complexity constituted by contradictory expectations is manifested in the shared narratives of prison managers. I draw on an institutional theory perspective in order to reconstruct the distinct constellation of institutional logics at the field level as well as at the individual level. Empirically, the study has four central elements: First, I identify the institutional logics at the field level as well as the relevant actors in the field. Second, I reconstruct the prevalent institutional logics as well as the metaphors in use at the individual level. Third, I compare field level and individual level. Finally, I am particularly interested in whether and how metaphors are used by prison managers to enact institutional logics and establish relationships between them. To answer the questions concerning the field level, I focused on articles in five Austrian newspapers from 1970 to 2015. Regarding the individual level, I conducted eight narrative interviews with (former) Austrian prisons managers. Methodologically, I combine a variety of different analytical approaches, namely content analysis, metaphor analysis, and objective hermeneutic analyses. The findings reveal two different 'types' of logics, namely governance and purpose logics. These logics differ in their content (what they claim jurisdiction over), their structure (their relationships within and across types), and in the metaphors used (purpose logics have a more restricted set of metaphors, while governance logics have a more differentiated set). Further, the empirical analyses show that metaphors play a variety of roles with regard to logics. They may either specify individual logics, set up competing logics against each other, stress complementarities between logics, or create relationships between otherwise unrelated logics. Summing up, this dissertation contributes, first, to literature on cross-level relationships of institutional logics by linking field-level results with individual-level results. Second, it extends literature on institutional pluralism and institutional complexity by arguing that constellations of logics do not only exist at different levels but there may also be different types of logics within a constellation. Third, I contribute to rhetorical approaches in institutional theory by showing how metaphors are a way of manifesting institutional pluralism. Fourth, for the practice of prison management, the study has implications for the planning and realization of change management efforts.

Introduction: The number of students with school refusal has remained at a constant level in Sweden since measurements began in 2006. School health service resources has been reduced since municipalisation which makes it difficult to intercept these students in time. Objective: To identify the tools of school health services, resources and professional skills with unauthorized absence, and the measures applied preventively. Method: A qualitative study based on seven semi-structured interviews with all professions within the school health services. Results: The school's responsibility affect both student health organization and the student's school structure. The new grades and subject schemes introduced in 2011 make higher requirements on today's students. It´s important that all of the school personell are aware of the problem and pursue the same objectives, for a good interaction. Discussion: School health services shared experiences around the concept school refusal behavior reflects the complexity of the problem. Knowledge and skills are important components. The school teams experience that they are self-taught regarding the subject but want further education and increased resources to be more preventive and relationship-building. Conclusion: Further Swedish research and knowledge is needed, as well as an improved definition of the concept in order to improve school health service’s work with school refusal students in student.Keywords:

In this chapter, the author draws on a historical case study of the Australian wine industry to explore variations in collective agency. The inductively derived process model illustrates the emergence of a new profession of scientific win- emaking, which unfolds in three phases. Each phase is characterized by a dis- tinct form of agency: distributed agency during the earliest phase, coordinated agency during later phases, and orchestrated agency during consolidation. In addition to exploring the temporal shifts in agency, the study includes a detailed analysis of the early stages of distributed agency, examining how col- lective agency is achieved in the absence of shared intentions.

Healthcare is an organizational field that has undergone profound change in the last few decades, an era characterized by market reform. Healthcare production has revealed both economic and quality problems in past eras, and reporting on these problems can be seen to have contributed to pressures for social reform. Yet, the move toward more market-oriented governance structures and design solutions also reflects a wider isomorphic institutional tendency for organizing social order.The conceptual frame work of this study takes a pessimistic stance on whether the market reform has achieved the intended goals with respect to advancing organizational quality performance. The framework draws on institutional theory and complementary collective action notions in organization theory concerned with boundedly rational decision-making to reason that healthcare evidences certain contextual characteristics that are not a good fit with the market enterprise model of organizing organizations. Specifically, hazards to the efficient market thesis were considered to include uncertain outcomes, a high degree of technical and coordination complexity, and the need to account for intertemporal process transformations of significant duration.A longitudinal design was used to test efficient market thesis propositions. Inpatient administrative data was used to develop two latent hospital quality performance variables, a Mortality quality indicator and an Errors quality indicator. The two latent variables were derived from three selected AHRQ patient safety indicators and an inpatient mortality rate. The measurement model was validated as evidencing significant systematic between-hospital variation. Audited survey data, along with inpatient discharge data was used to develop hospital economic performance variables and process control variables.A set of predictive supply-and-demand models were used to test: 1) whether there is evidence of any trend in quality performance, and how market competition relates to observations of improvement; 2) whether quality cost more; and, 3) whether preferences for better quality outcomes related to hospital economic performance. A hierarchical linear model growth-curve design was employed to assess the predicted relationships and to account for unmeasured organizational dependent relations determinant of hospital quality performance. The unaccounted for systematic between-hospital variance was taken to estimate an "unspecified" hospital-specific institutional effect, independent of material-resource factors. The measurement model results for each of the quality indicators selected evidenced construct validity for patient-level risk-adjustment. Each quality indicator demonstrated a significant systematic between-group variance component in all of the four years studied. The two latent hospital quality performance variables also demonstrated systematic between-hospital variance in growth trajectories in the linear growth-curve model.The predictive models evidenced no significant growth rate trend for either of the quality indicators, indicating the competitive bar on quality performance was unaffected during this period of market reform. Neither was there any evidence that pricing mechanism were able to price the utility of better outcomes, as higher quality did not cost more. Neither was there evidence that consumer preferences for better quality related to better hospital economic performance, as measured by hospital operating margins.

Using firm-level data of manufacturing sector during the period 1989-2010, this thesis explored the export behavior of firms in Turkey. Up to date, Turkey&rsquo / s export performance has been analyzed from macro perspective extensively. However, far too little attention has been paid to firm-level analysis contrary to ongoing and growing empirical literature. The preliminary analysis revealed the superiority of exporting firms. Both self-selection and learning-by-exporting are found to be valid explanation for the source of this observed export premium. Dynamic discrete choice model results provide supportive evidences for the existence of sunk-costs. Besides, it is observed that sunk-costs varied during the crises. Sunk-costs not only shape export decision but also affect timing decision. The exit and entry dynamics of the firms has been studied using duration analysis. Results showed self-selection of less profitable firms into export markets and importance of non-price competition for the survival of exporters. Impact of crises on export behavior has been examined by regarding extensive and intensive margins of exports separately. The findings implied that for 1994 crisis increase in extensive margins, for the case of 2001 crisis increase in intensive margin and for 2008 crisis decline both in extensive and intensive margins of exports dominated. This thesis makes several noteworthy contributions to the existing literature. First, it contributed to the ongoing and growing empirical literature using Turkish data. Secondly, unlike, existing studies that investigate single feature of the export behavior, in this thesis, using different approaches the issue has been analyzed extensively. Moreover, using advantage of the data set and Turkish economy, the impact of different types of crisis on export behavior has been analyzed and contributed to the literature that studies the impact of shocks on export behavior.

A major criticism of the environmental behavior literature is the nearly exclusive focus on the role of attitudes and individual-level characteristics. Despite this concentration on individual-level causes, variation in environmental behavior remains. As individual behavior becomes an increasingly significant source of pollution, a better understanding of the influences individual behavior is critical to addressing environmental degradation. This research re-directs the focus on individual-level influences on environmental behaviors by building models examining the varying dimensions of environmental behaviors as influenced by community characteristics. This is accomplished by testing a series of hypotheses under the auspices of two theoretical frameworks: the neoclassical economic theory and a social contextual model of environmental actions. Using individual-level data from the 1993 and 2000 General Social Survey and MSA data from the U.S. Census and the Environmental Protection Agency, I estimate two-level hierarchical models for three environmentally sensitive behaviors (environmentally sensitive food consumption, environmentally sensitive automobile use, and environmental activism). Multi-level analyses yield models revealing significant associations between MSA measures and individual environmental behaviors. Objective environmental conditions, region of MSA and MSA education level are significantly associated with environmentally sensitive food consumption behaviors, environmentally sensitive automobile use, and environmental activism behaviors, though their influence assumes diverse forms. Among the community measures, MSA education level is the primary social process that produces change in all environmental behaviors. In each of the models, MSA education level exhibits effects on all three behavioral measures and significant cross-level effects on automobile use behaviors. Living in a well educated MSA, particularly in the West or Northeast suggests higher environmental participation. Region of MSA is also a characteristic that must be considered when evaluating environmental behaviors, particularly for those living in the West and Northeast. Theoretical conclusions suggest that individual environmental behavior decision making is not simply a market exchange, but social forces are at work in the individual decision-making process.