Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-62).

Despite a substantial volume of research on identity in the social and behavioral sciences, identity theory has existed on the margins of the leisure literature and contributed to the understanding of leisure behavior only in occasional illustrative references. The purpose of this dissertation was to incorporate identity theory in the understanding individuals? leisure behavior within the context of recreational golf. Three independent studies were conducted to address different yet interconnected research topics. The first study identified conceptual links between identity theory and the concepts of enduring involvement, commitment, loyalty, specialization and serious leisure. Guided by identity theory, it was suggested that identity-confirmation is the underlying reason why individuals become involved in a leisure activity and develop a commitment and side bets. Further, this study proposed that self-verification processes underline why individuals value certain lines of action (i.e., enduring involvement, commitment, and specialization) and, in turn, become specialists, amateurs or loyal clients. The second study investigated the relationship between gender identity, leisure identity and leisure participation. Using data collected from recreational golfers, results showed that both leisure identity and masculine identity positively influenced respondents? participation in recreational golf. Furthermore, the findings illustrated that masculine identity plays a formative role in the development of a leisure identity, which in turn is an antecedent of leisure behavior. The third study adopted the concept of identity conflict/facilitation to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the experience of constraints to leisure and constraint negotiation. Using data collected from recreational golfers, analyses provided evidence in support of the contention that identity conflict/facilitation is an antecedent of perceived constraints and negotiation efforts. The findings also illustrated that the ability to negotiate constraints depends on the compatibility between the leisure identity and the other identities an individual holds. Finally, a summary and synthesis of the findings and agenda for future research were discussed.

This research addresses the question of why some crises between states are resolved through negotiated agreements while others result in continued conflict or escalate to war. The model deviates from previous approaches to the study of conflict management in four key ways: 1) management is treated as a conflict strategy rather than an outcome; 2) costs, rather than calculation of the relative benefits of conflict over management, motivate the initiation of conflict management; 3) the conceptualization of costs is broadened to incorporate subjective factors; and 4) issue salience is proposed to determine the threshold at which an actor’s preference for conflict over management changes. The central question this conceptualization raises, therefore, is what factors influence actors’ strategy choices during a crisis. The theory proposes that, when it comes to the initiation of conflict management, it is costs that dominate the decision process. Or as Jackman (1993) so succinctly puts it; “for those confronted with a very restricted range of available alternatives extending from horrendous to merely awful, minimizing pain is the same as maximizing utility”. Both experimental and statistical methodologies are used to test the hypotheses derived from the theory. Original experimental data were collected from experiments run on undergraduate students at Texas A&M University. For the statistical analysis a data set of interstate crises and negotiation behavior was compiled using data from the SHERFACS and International Crisis Behavior data sets and data collected specifically for this research. This multi-method approach was chosen because of the nature of the questions being examined and in order to minimize the limitations of the individual methodologies. The experimental tests demonstrate that the expectations of the model are supported in the controlled environment of the experiment. The results from the empirical analysis were, within the restrictions of the data, consistent with both theoretical expectations and the experimental results.

Despite a substantial volume of research on identity in the social and behavioral sciences, identity theory has existed on the margins of the leisure literature and contributed to the understanding of leisure behavior only in occasional illustrative references. The purpose of this dissertation was to incorporate identity theory in the understanding individuals? leisure behavior within the context of recreational golf. Three independent studies were conducted to address different yet interconnected research topics. The first study identified conceptual links between identity theory and the concepts of enduring involvement, commitment, loyalty, specialization and serious leisure. Guided by identity theory, it was suggested that identity-confirmation is the underlying reason why individuals become involved in a leisure activity and develop a commitment and side bets. Further, this study proposed that self-verification processes underline why individuals value certain lines of action (i.e., enduring involvement, commitment, and specialization) and, in turn, become specialists, amateurs or loyal clients. The second study investigated the relationship between gender identity, leisure identity and leisure participation. Using data collected from recreational golfers, results showed that both leisure identity and masculine identity positively influenced respondents? participation in recreational golf. Furthermore, the findings illustrated that masculine identity plays a formative role in the development of a leisure identity, which in turn is an antecedent of leisure behavior. The third study adopted the concept of identity conflict/facilitation to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the experience of constraints to leisure and constraint negotiation. Using data collected from recreational golfers, analyses provided evidence in support of the contention that identity conflict/facilitation is an antecedent of perceived constraints and negotiation efforts. The findings also illustrated that the ability to negotiate constraints depends on the compatibility between the leisure identity and the other identities an individual holds. Finally, a summary and synthesis of the findings and agenda for future research were discussed.

With the development of electronic commerce and online group-buying, many studies tried to explore theories about online group-buying. Following the recent development of online group-buying, this research tries to provide a comprehensive framework to study online group-buying by proposing five different dimensions as a basis to develop various group-buying models. The five dimensions are initiator, price variety, bargain power, reservation price, and number of negotiators. The developed group-buying models are categorized into two categories, negotiating price before forming coaliation and negotiation price after forming coaliation. In addition, we also tried to analyze online group-buying model or behavior based on microeconomic theory. Hopefully, it can open a new research area in online group-buying models.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 395-403).

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 17, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. James A. Wall Jr. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University. / Bibliography: leaves 78-81.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2005. / Adviser: Robert Pfaltzgraff, Jr. Submitted to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 455-492). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;