Thesis (M.A.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2004. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-75).

Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2004. / "Publication number AAT 3149050."

Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2004. / "Publication number AAT 3160389."

Thesis (M.A.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2004. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-75).

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-87). Also available in electronic version.

Successful innovations have been assumed by prior literature to ultimately be adopted by all competitors within an industry based on social explanations or economic rationale specific to the efficiency of the innovation. However, capabilities possessed by a firm can enhance or inhibit the adoption based upon their similarity to those used in the innovation. In categorizing a firm's capabilities as complementary, substitutive, or neutralizing to the innovation, this study provides an economic explanation for the role of internal capabilities in adoption decisions. Using a sample of professional football teams adopting the West Coast Offense, I find that capabilities influence the decision process in favor of adopting for organizations with complementary and substitutive capabilities. The role of knowledge from the innovator is highlighted in adopting the innovation, but fails to moderate the relationship between adoption and firm performance. I also illustrate how adopting firms with complementary capabilities outperform those organizations with similar capabilities that elect not to adopt. Finally, I demonstrate that firms with neutralizing capabilities are better off not adopting the innovation based on comparative performance of adopters and non-adopters. The overall results suggest a greater emphasis on internal capabilities of the firm in innovation adoption and reconsideration of theories stating that innovations should be adopted throughout an industry.

Accessing and exploiting organizational resources plays an integral role in not only a firm’s propensity to achieve a competitive advantage, but also its mere survival in a competitive environment (Ulrich & Barney, 1984). One of the most common means of resource acquisition for both large administrative firms and smaller entrepreneurial enterprises is interorganizational alliances (Ireland, Hitt, & Vaidyanath, 2002). Utilizing the resource-based view of the firm within a strategic alliance framework, this dissertation examines a particular type of interorganizational exchange relationship permeating the marketing discipline. The promotional alliance is defined within this research as a strategic alliance based on resource exchange between a promoting enterprise and a firm seeking to fulfill promotion-based objectives through an ongoing collaboration with the enterprise. Each of the two sides of the promotional alliance relationship served as a focus for one of the two studies presented within this work. In the first study, a longitudinal survival model was employed to investigate the dependency of a promotional enterprise on external resource acquisition via alliances with promotion-seeking firms. Also at issue were the heterogeneity of resources accessed and the dynamics of the institutional forces regulating such alliances. Alliances with sponsoring firms offering financial and performance-based resources, as opposed to operational resources, were found to have a significant influence on the survival of sponsored enterprises. However, these dependencies were subject to changes in institutional support and the potential for diminishing returns. The second study approached promotional alliances from the perspective of the firms seeking promotion. Relying on the theory of efficient capital markets (Fama, 1970), an event study analysis was undertaken to determine the impact of internationally prominent promotional alliance announcements on the equity value of the sponsoring firms, which theoretically reflects investors’ expectations of future cash flows. Contrary to prior research, the initiation of these alliances demonstrated a negative impact on shareholder value. Several alliance, firm, and promoting partner characteristics were hypothesized to influence alliance outcomes to varying degrees within the cross-sectional sample of promotion-seeking firms. Surprisingly, only the magnitude of the sponsoring firm’s alliance investment and the nationality congruence within the alliance were influential in predicting investors’ reaction to such alliances. Each study was embedded within the institutional context of Formula One (F1) motor racing and focused on the promotional alliances involving corporate partners (sponsoring firms) and their affiliated racing teams. In this context, the racing teams acted as the promoting enterprises charged with providing the marketing platform to meet their sponsoring firms’ objectives. With annual races on four or more continents; a global television audience rivaled only by the Olympics’ opening ceremony, FIFA World Cup finals, and the NFL’s Super Bowl; direct competition between promoting teams; and sponsoring firms hailing from fifteen different nations and over twenty diverse industry sectors; F1 provided an ideal setting for the evaluation of interorganizational alliances’ impact on the survival of promoting enterprises and a promotion-seeking firm’s value implications. To compliment and strengthen the applied contribution of both studies, the analyzed results were subjected to a discussion with industry experts representing both sides of the promotional alliance relationship (Lane & Jacobson, 1995). Not only did this closing analysis reinforce the relevance of the research offered here, but it also presented a practitioner-focused examination of the industry challenges inherent in the theoretical tenets underlying such research.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2009. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-209).

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.

<p> The specific problem under study results from the growth of multinational workforces in U.S. hospitals and the gap in the literature explaining how the presence of these workforces impacts hospital leadership, decision-making, and financial performance. The purpose of this qualitative embedded multi-case study was to discover and describe hospital nursing leader&rsquo;s beliefs from their experiences about how having employees from multiple national cultures affects nursing leadership, decision-making, and departmental financial performance in the hospital. The challenge faced by many hospitals is that the U.S. workforce is becoming culturally diverse as the global workforce increases its geographical mobility. The current research was important because results revealed nurse leaders&rsquo; beliefs about a link between the cultural dimensions of a multinational workforce and the decision-making, financial performance, and patient care within a hospital nursing department. The sample included eight nursing leaders from seven hospitals where the workforces are multinational and culturally diverse. The cultural dimensions by Hofstede were used to study the impact of a multinational workforce on the organizational practices of a nursing department in a hospital setting. Results revealed nine core themes, expected from the literature, and two emerging themes provided answers to the research questions. The nine core themes were Hofstede&rsquo;s cultural dimensions, workforce values, nursing organization impact, immigration/migration, nursing leadership, nursing workforce, organization culture, change, and develop multicultural organization attributes. The two emerging themes were familismo (family loyalty influences multinational workforce decision making) and hospital refusal to hire multicultural nurses whose national culture conflict with the organization&rsquo;s culture.</p>