This study focuses on identifying communication technology adoption behaviors to provide educational benchmarks for Texas cooperatives. A survey was conducted with questions identifying a range of variables describing adoption behavior of communication technology from the background of cooperative managers to board management policy. The survey categorized 105 different cooperatives by current technology use and management practices. Once the data were collected, a factor analysis to understand underlying relationships of variables was conducted. The survey found that Texas cooperative managers are willing to expand on their current use of communication technology, however a clear definition of how to use new concepts as a powerful tool is needed. In terms of governance, we found that many cooperatives have no stated policies regarding the use of communication technologies. Generally, those cooperatives that had defined technology use policies were more likely to be using more forms of technology. Through a logistic and ordered logistic regression of the data, the study did not reflect our initial hypothesis that age of the respondent and the years working for a cooperative (manger characteristics) would be a significant factor in estimating Texas cooperatives? willingness to adopt new forms of communication technology and social media. However, the cooperatives? technology adoption behavior can best be explained by the data produced from descriptive cooperative information and the existence of employee communication technology policies. Likewise, cooperatives? willingness to adopt social media can best be explained by the data produced from manager attitudes and cooperatives? concerns.

Nessa dissertação, procura-se avaliar se o retorno esperado do ensino superior é determinante para a escolha profissional e explicar como os salários, as habilidades e as características sócio-econômicas dos alunos da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), em conjunto, se associam à escolha da carreira. Para atingir esses objetivos, são utilizados dados da Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular (Fuvest) de 1995 e de 1996 e do Censo 2000. As carreiras são divididas em seis áreas de atuação – educação, ciências humanas, negócios, saúde, engenharia e matemática/ciências – e são estimados dois modelos de escolha discreta: logit multinomial e logit condicional. Na estimação do logit multinomial são utilizadas apenas variáveis relativas às características dos indivíduos e no logit condicional inclui-se o salário médio de cada área de atuação. Os resultados indicam que o retorno esperado não tem efeito sobre a escolha profissional. / This research evaluate if higher education expected return is determinant for the professional choice and how the interaction between wage, abilities and socio-economic characteristics of Universidade de São Paulo’s students, all together, are associated to the career choice. Data used is from Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular (Fuvest) 1995 and 1996’s questionnaires and from Censo 2000. The careers are grouped in six concentration areas – education, human sciences, management, health, engineer, math/sciences – and two discrete choice models are estimated: multinomial logit and conditional logit. Multinomial logit contains only variables specific to individuals and the average wage of each concentration area is included in conditional logit estimation. The results show that expected return doesn’t have effect over the professional choice.

Nessa dissertação, procura-se avaliar se o retorno esperado do ensino superior é determinante para a escolha profissional e explicar como os salários, as habilidades e as características sócio-econômicas dos alunos da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), em conjunto, se associam à escolha da carreira. Para atingir esses objetivos, são utilizados dados da Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular (Fuvest) de 1995 e de 1996 e do Censo 2000. As carreiras são divididas em seis áreas de atuação – educação, ciências humanas, negócios, saúde, engenharia e matemática/ciências – e são estimados dois modelos de escolha discreta: logit multinomial e logit condicional. Na estimação do logit multinomial são utilizadas apenas variáveis relativas às características dos indivíduos e no logit condicional inclui-se o salário médio de cada área de atuação. Os resultados indicam que o retorno esperado não tem efeito sobre a escolha profissional. / This research evaluate if higher education expected return is determinant for the professional choice and how the interaction between wage, abilities and socio-economic characteristics of Universidade de São Paulo’s students, all together, are associated to the career choice. Data used is from Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular (Fuvest) 1995 and 1996’s questionnaires and from Censo 2000. The careers are grouped in six concentration areas – education, human sciences, management, health, engineer, math/sciences – and two discrete choice models are estimated: multinomial logit and conditional logit. Multinomial logit contains only variables specific to individuals and the average wage of each concentration area is included in conditional logit estimation. The results show that expected return doesn’t have effect over the professional choice.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:20:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo573_1.pdf: 3504462 bytes, checksum: 028fb584698b08755667d8902b92ee48 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal analisar como os estudantes candidatos às vagas na Universidade Federal de Pernambuco tem escolhido qual carreira seguir. Desta forma foi estudado como as características sócio-econômicas dos candidatos influenciam na escolha e, em seguida, foi analisado como os retornos salariais correspondentes ao grupos de cursos disponíveis se associavam às características individuais para influenciar na decisão de qual profissão seguir. Para isto, foram utilizados os dados da Covest, que é a comissão organizadora do vestibular da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, para o vestibular 2009. Além disso também foram utilizados dados da PNAD 2008 para a estimação dos salário médio de cada carreira. Os cursos oferecidos pela UFPE foram divididos em 9 grupos, obedecendo a razões de proximidade profissional das carreiras, e para realizar as estimações foram utilizados os modelos econométricos de logit multinomial e logit condicional. O primeiro modelo utiliza apenas variáveis explicativas relacionadas aos indivíduos e o segundo é quando se utiliza alguma variável explicativa característica das alternativas. Os resultados apontam para a influência que as variáveis pessoais, background familiar e variáveis educacionais exercem sobre a probabilidade de escolha dos grupos de cursos disponíveis. Também foi constatado, que o retorno salarial não tem significância sobre a probabilidade de escolha quando se leva em conta as variáveis que representam as características individuais

No description available.

This dissertation examines two problems retailers face when assessing their marketing resource allocation. In the first chapter, I develop a conceptual framework and modeling approach to help retailers assess how online and offline marketing effectiveness vary by channel, customer value segment, and country. In the main application, using a retail dataset from six countries, I estimate Hierarchical Linear and Cross-Random Effects models to find that own- and cross-channel sales responsiveness to online and offline marketing varies by value segment and country. Specifically, direct mail drives offline sales for prospects cross all countries and email drives both online and offline sales across customer segments in half of the countries. Customer value is the key driver of offline sales, while country is a key driver of online sales. I validate the findings with a second retail dataset and a field experiment. The different elasticities and customer segment sizes across countries imply a different marketing resource allocation from status-quo. The findings generate actionable implications for theory and managers. In the second chapter, I quantify the simultaneous effects of customer satisfaction (CS) and employee satisfaction (ES) on cross-buying. I jointly model the effects of CS and ES on cross-buying probability controlling for customer heterogeneity and time effects. The model accounts for nonlinear and asymmetric effects of satisfaction. Moreover, I examine whether the effects of CS and ES on cross-buying are non-monotonic. I employ panel datasets at individual customer and employee level on transactions and satisfaction of a leading car rental company. The results of the empirical analysis lead to four main findings. First, CS and ES have simultaneous effects on cross-buying probability. Second, the effect size of ES is about 2.7 times larger than the effect of CS. Third, the relationship between satisfaction and cross-buying is concave non-monotonic. For low satisfaction levels, an increase in satisfaction leads to higher cross-buying. However, for high levels of satisfaction, an increase in satisfaction leads to lower cross-buying. Fourth, CS and ES do not have an interaction effect on cross-buying probability.

Traffic congestion is a serious problem in the United States and is likely to get worse. A number of strategies encompassing increasing supply and managing demand have been suggested to mitigate the problem of traffic congestion. These strategies seek to reduce travel time and/or make travel time more reliable. The use of managed lanes is one such strategy. Faced with successful implementation of a managed lane strategy, it is important to understand potential public perception of the managed lane as well as estimate the number of travelers willing to use managed lanes. Such an estimate would help estimate the toll rates for optimal usage of managed lanes by carpoolers and toll paying travelers. An online survey augmented by paper and laptop survey was conducted in Houston and Dallas to collect information about travelers’ travel behavior, socio-economic characteristics, managed lane perception, and potential use of managed lanes. A comparison of interest in using managed lanes revealed that in majority of cases there was no difference in interest in using managed lanes across user groups. Travel time reliability and ability to travel faster were indicated as top two reasons for interest in managed lanes. This was true for all travelers regardless of mode. Mode choice model using multinomial logit modeling were estimated for Houston and Dallas. Simulation studies were conducted using these mode choice models to estimate the percentage of Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) travelers on managed lane (ML), High Occupancy Vehicle with two travelers (HOV2) on ML, High Occupancy Vehicle with three or more travelers (HOV3+) on ML, SOV travelers on general purpose lane (GPL), HOV2 travelers on GPL, and HOV3+ travelers on GPL. These scenarios compared the managed lane usage for different speeds on GPL (25 miles per hour, 30 miles per hour, and 35 miles per hour). For the case when general purpose lane speed is 25 miles per hour, an increase of $11.75 in SOV tolls ($18 from $6.25) decreases the modal share of SOV travelers on Houston ML from 23.3 percent to 16.9 percent. A similar increase in Dallas tolls decreases the modal share of SOV ML travelers from 22.0 percent to 16.3 percent.

Traffic congestion is a serious problem in the United States and is likely to get worse. A number of strategies encompassing increasing supply and managing demand have been suggested to mitigate the problem of traffic congestion. These strategies seek to reduce travel time and/or make travel time more reliable. The use of managed lanes is one such strategy. Faced with successful implementation of a managed lane strategy, it is important to understand potential public perception of the managed lane as well as estimate the number of travelers willing to use managed lanes. Such an estimate would help estimate the toll rates for optimal usage of managed lanes by carpoolers and toll paying travelers. An online survey augmented by paper and laptop survey was conducted in Houston and Dallas to collect information about travelers’ travel behavior, socio-economic characteristics, managed lane perception, and potential use of managed lanes. A comparison of interest in using managed lanes revealed that in majority of cases there was no difference in interest in using managed lanes across user groups. Travel time reliability and ability to travel faster were indicated as top two reasons for interest in managed lanes. This was true for all travelers regardless of mode. Mode choice model using multinomial logit modeling were estimated for Houston and Dallas. Simulation studies were conducted using these mode choice models to estimate the percentage of Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) travelers on managed lane (ML), High Occupancy Vehicle with two travelers (HOV2) on ML, High Occupancy Vehicle with three or more travelers (HOV3+) on ML, SOV travelers on general purpose lane (GPL), HOV2 travelers on GPL, and HOV3+ travelers on GPL. These scenarios compared the managed lane usage for different speeds on GPL (25 miles per hour, 30 miles per hour, and 35 miles per hour). For the case when general purpose lane speed is 25 miles per hour, an increase of $11.75 in SOV tolls ($18 from $6.25) decreases the modal share of SOV travelers on Houston ML from 23.3 percent to 16.9 percent. A similar increase in Dallas tolls decreases the modal share of SOV ML travelers from 22.0 percent to 16.3 percent.

Konstanz, Univ., Diplomarbeit, 2006.

MENDONÇA, Kamila Vieira de. Análise das causas socioeconômicas da pobreza rural no Ceará. 2009. 69 f.: Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Ceará. Mestrado Acadêmico em Economia Rural (MAER). Centro de Ciências Agrárias. Fortaleza-CE. 2009 / Submitted by Francisco Helder Macêdo Rangel (fhelder@ufc.br) on 2014-09-25T12:35:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_dis_kvmendonça.pdf: 414467 bytes, checksum: e7ff04133b8341eea985a7eb72592dc8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Margareth Mesquita(margaret@ufc.br) on 2014-10-02T13:55:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_dis_kvmendonça.pdf: 414467 bytes, checksum: e7ff04133b8341eea985a7eb72592dc8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-02T13:55:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_dis_kvmendonça.pdf: 414467 bytes, checksum: e7ff04133b8341eea985a7eb72592dc8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / The poverty aims to analyse in the rural areas in the State of the Ceará in which it refers to his causes socioeconomics, like education, age, color, type, principal activity of occupation and government transfers. Besides, there aim to analyse the characteristics of the rural residences made a list to the acess the public goods. There are studied the causes of the rural pverty of Ceará with the objective to check possible alterations in the level of the poverty in the previous and subsequent period of the Real Plan. From the microdata of the PNAD, obtained near the IBGE, there are determined the variables that present association with the rural poverty, through the model of regression logit and to analyse the determinants of the individuals, the marginal contributions are calculated. Besides, the public goods are calculated the descriptive statistics of the variable made a list to the causes of the poverty and to the acess. It is ended that the variables sex, level of schooling, receiving of retirement, boarding house and principal activity of work have significant relation with the poverty o the region, being the principals to education and the government transfers. Besides, it increased the acess to the public goods, this fact that provided better quality of life for the rural population of Ceará. / Objetiva-se analisar a pobreza nas áreas rurais no Estado do Ceará no que se refere às suas causas socioeconômicas como educação, idade, cor gênero, atividade principal de ocupação e transferências governamentais. Além disso, objetiva-se analisar as características dos domicílios rurais relacionadas ao acesso a bens públicos. Estudam-se as causas da pobreza rural cearense com o objetivo de verificar possíveis alterações no nível da pobreza no período anterior e posterior do Plano Real. A partir dos microdados das PNAD, obtidos junto ao IBGE, determinam-se as variáveis que apresentam associações com a pobreza rural, por meio do modelo de regressão Logit e para analisar os determinantes dos indivíduos, calculam-se as contribuições marginais. Ademais, são calculados as estatísticas descritivas das variáveis relacionadas às causas da pobreza e ao acesso a bens públicos. Conclui-se que as variáveis sexo, nível de escolaridade, recebimento de aposentadoria, pensão e atividade principal de trabalho possuem relação significativa com a pobreza da região, sendo as principais a educação e as transferências governamentais. Além disso, aumentou o acesso aos bens públicos, fato este que proporcionou melhor qualidade de vida para a população rural cearense.