Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology / Fred O. Bradley / This study investigated the impact of an extended orientation program, Wildcat Warm-up, on academic performance and retention. The study sought to quantify differences between students who participated in the program and those who did not attend in terms of grade point average and retention to sophomore year. Participants in the study were all domestic, full-time, freshmen undergraduate students enrolled at the institution in the fall semester (2004 to 2007). This study sought to provide descriptive and predictability data by comparing two groups of students. One group consisted of participants in Wildcat Warm-up while the second was a comparison group matched on ACT composite score, residency status, and gender. Institutional data were analyzed, including student self-report record information, institutionally generated grade reports from the end of each semester, and enrollment information. The participant group and comparison group were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The first two research questions provided a preliminary analysis of the overall impact of the extended orientation on the two measures identified for the study: freshman grade point averages and retention. The first research question and hypothesis were explored with a two-group independent samples Chi-square test with a dichotomous response variable. The second research question and hypothesis were explored with an analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) for both first and second semester grade point averages. The third research question and remaining hypotheses were explored through a logistic regression analysis using the forward stepwise method. This study found there was a relationship between retention to sophomore year and Wildcat Warm-up participation and slight significant differences between first semester grade point averages for the two groups. In both cases, the strength of the association was small, but significant. The logistic regression analysis allowed for the creation of odds ratios for the predictor variables of the study where it was discovered when all other variables remain constant, the odds of a Wildcat Warm-up participant being retained from freshman to sophomore year were 31% higher than for a non-participant. While statistical significance was found, practical significance considerations did not allow much, if any of the variance, to be attributed to Wildcat Warm-up participation.

Master of Science / Counseling and Student Developement / Christy D. Craft / Students have many opportunities to familiarize themselves with their college after committing to a school. Institutions offer summer orientation and enrollment sessions, and many also offer extended orientation sessions that may include spending time in the residence halls or outdoor camps and activities. Upon arrival to campus, first year students are given a great deal of information about campus resources, culture and traditions. They may also have welcome week activities, first year seminar classes, learning communities, specialized housing accommodations,and a wealth of other opportunities to connect to the university. The purpose of this report is to explore both the unique challenges facing first year students and the varying support structures in place for them. To explore this topic, the unique needs facing first-year, residential students as it relates to student development and transition theories will be outlined. Focusing on institutional concerns, persistence will also be explored as a theoretical framework. Finally, to make this report relevant to Kansas State University, the first year programming efforts at twelve institutions will be synthesized and analyzed as a foundation for comparison. A proposal for potential programs at K-State will be presented.

The objective of this study has been to investigate the influence of an entrepreneurial orientation on the perceived success of personal protective equipment organisations in South Africa. For the purpose of this study, business success has been measured by means of two dependent variables, namely Business development and improvement and Business growth. Structured questionnaires have been administered to managers in one company that is perceived to be the current market leader in the personal protective equipment industry in South Africa. Construct validity of the measuring instrument has been assessed by means of a principal component exploratory factor analysis and by calculating Cronbach alpha coefficients. A literature study on the field of Entrepreneurship has been conducted. The term entrepreneurial orientation consisting of five constructs, namely autonomy, innovation, pro-activeness, risk-taking and competitive aggressiveness, is defined. Perceived success of the industry is defined in terms of growth and development. Both ratings of the constructs and their evaluation of the perceived success of the industry, have been measured, analysed and reported. The results obtained from the questionnaire in conjunction with the literature review, are used to draw conclusions and make recommendations. The study is based on perceived corporate entrepreneurship within the line, middle and senior management levels of SPPE, a division of SAMSAC Africa (Pty) Ltd. The year 2009, has marked a series of economic events that placed the personal protective equipment market under immense pressure to maintain its bottom line growth. The environment within the organisation is constantly changing. SPPE customers, which are mainly the mining industry, have pressurised SPPE to filter cost savings through to them to ensure that they, in turn, alleviate the pressure to cut costs. Costs have been identified as one of the key challenges facing the entire mining sector. In turn, the suppliers of SPPE have also been applying pressure to the company to increase their purchase price, due to increased labour, production and overhead costs. The strengthening of entrepreneurship is an important objective for any organisation that is building its responsiveness to a globalised and changing environment. For SPPE to face the pressures brought to bear upon them by their customers and suppliers respectively, and, coupled with fierce competition in the personal protective equipment industry, it is necessary to review its processes and actively search for new ways to increase its capacity for innovation and competitiveness. The results show that the managers in the participating personal protective equipment business have perceived that the entrepreneurial orientation factors of Pro-activeness, Risk-taking and Autonomy have a positive influence on their business’s development and improvement. A significant relationship within the dependent variable Business development and improvement has also been found to exist within the independent variable Competitive aggressiveness. Corporate entrepreneurship is seen as a critical component to organisational success, especially in organisations that operate in rapidly changing industries. Corporate entrepreneurship can be a solution to large organisations’ lack of innovation, stagnated top-line growth and the inaction that often overtakes the large, mature organisations of the world. Organisations need to consistently search for new opportunities and therefore may benefit from adopting an entrepreneurial orientation. Established organisations may in essence be forced to behave entrepreneurially within the organisation, in order to defend their positions in the market. Competitive successes for organisations require managers to make strategic choices. Strategy is about relating the organisation with its environment and entrepreneurship is about exploiting opportunities in the same environment. To enhance the entrepreneurial orientation in personal protective equipment businesses, it is recommended that the word “entrepreneurship” should specifically be included in the vision statement of the businesses, setting goals and developing strategies for entrepreneurship. The focus of the business then becomes opportunity identification, discovery of new sources of value, and product and process innovation that could lead to greater success. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Det är känt att mätningar påverkar en individ eller en grupps beteende och därför är det viktigt att vara noggrann i valet av mätetal samt att veta varför dessa mäts i det processorienterade arbetssättet. Syftet med studien är att identifiera vilka typer av förändringar som är lämpliga avseende mätetal och deras användning vid en övergång till ett processorienterat arbetssätt inom tillverkande industri. Baserat på detta har även rekommendationer till fallföretaget Setra Group utformats. Detta för att arbetet med mätningar skall gå i linje med det nya arbetssättet.   Studien grundar sig i en fallstudie som genomförts på fallföretaget som befinner sig i denna övergång. För att samla teori om tidigare forskning inom området genomfördes en litteraturgenomgång för att skapa en teoretisk referensram att utgå ifrån inför datainsamlingen.  Data från fallföretaget har samlats in genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med olika ansvariga inom Setras produktionsledning, marknadsavdelning samt enhetsledningar. Efter datainsamlingen har den teoretiska referensramen kompletterats med ytterligare relevant teori om ämnen som tagits upp under intervjuerna. Forskningsansatsen som har använts kan därför beskrivas som en abduktiv forskningsmetod. Den insamlade teorin har sedan jämförts och analyserats med den framtagna empirin för att leda fram till en slutsats. Utifrån analysen har även fallspecifika rekommendationer tagits fram för Setra Group.   Studien visar att det är viktigt för en processorienterad organisation att ha väl underbyggda mätetal som går i linje med det kundfokus som kännetecknar ett processorienterat arbetssätt. Det finns dock inget facit på hur många, vilka och hur stort fokus på dessa mätetal som en organisation bör ha då detta är organisationsspecifikt. Dock bör det finnas en balans mellan mätetalen som tillsammans täcker flera olika perspektiv och fokusområden samtidigt som det är tydligt uttalat vilka som är de huvudsakliga mätetalen. Vilka mätetal som är lämpliga att använda inom en organisation är beroende på ett flertal faktorer såsom organisationskultur, typ av produkt och bransch. Detta bör en enskild organisation själva avgöra genom en kartläggning av dess huvudprocess för att således avgöra organisationens framgångsfaktorer. Det har även visat sig vara viktigt att en organisation är självkritisk till de traditionella mätetal som används för undvika att de riskerar att överordna huvudprocessens förmåga att leverera produkter till kunden. / It is known that measuring affects the behavior of an individual or a group and therefore it is important to be careful when deciding on what to measure and to know why it’s being measured when working process oriented.  The purpose of the study is to identify what changes are needed regarding measurements and the choice of what’s being measured in a situation where a function oriented organization within manufacturing will make a transition to a more process oriented way of working. Recommendations to the case study company have also been constructed based on this to adapt the measurements in line with the new way of working.   The study is based on a case study conducted at Setra Group which currently is in this transition. A literature review was conducted to gather theory regarding previous research in this field to create a theoretical framework to proceed from before collecting data. To gather data from the company in the case study seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with different executives within Setras production management, marketing department and managing directors at different production units. After the data collection the theoretical framework was completed with additional relevant theory relating subjects that were discussed during the interviews. This research approach can be described as an abductive research method. The gathered theory and data has then been compared and analyzed to lead to a conclusion. Case-specific recommendations to the business case has also been presented to Setra Group.   The study has shown that it is important for a process-oriented organization to measure aspects that is in line with the customer-orientation that characterizes a process-oriented way of working. There is however no key answer to how many measurements, which or how much focus an organization should have on these measurements since it differs from one organization to another. Although there is, however, a need for a balance on what is being measured so they together cover the different perspectives and focus areas while at the same time the main measurements are clearly defined. Which measurements that is suitable to use at an organization depends on a number of aspects such as culture within the organization, type of product and what industry the organization is operative in. An organization should decide this themselves by creating a map over their main process to get a good picture over their success factors. It has also shown to be important that an organization is self-critical towards the measuring they are conducting, to avoid that the measurements are treated in a way that they are limiting the main process ability to deliver products to the customer.

Numerous variables from mismanagement to lack of a clear marketing approach contribute to the decline of private universities throughout the United States. Limited empirical research exists to identify which variables most frequently occur when a university is faced with the prospect of decline. It is imperative that universities understand the magnitude of the decline process so that, when faced with a decline, the university can take effective corrective action and bring about turnaround. Organizational structure theories as well as organizational decline theories are presented to gain a basic understanding of organizational dynamics and to lay the groundwork for the presentation of general organizational decline theory, stages of organizational decline and sources of organizational decline. The organizational structure of private universities are then be explored. Finally, university decline are explored both historically as well as through the development of a basic understanding of university decline theories. Presidential leadership and market orientation are thoroughly discussed as major variables of the study. A quantitative research design is utilized to identify the relationship of presidential leadership style, market orientation and university decline. Recommendations are then made based upon the data that will assist university leadership in identifying possible antecedents to university decline and the role of market orientation on decline, and which will also provide a framework for further research on those variables occurring in greatest frequency to be analyzed quantitatively in future research. The results of this study reveal several findings for the leadership of private not-for-profit universities. No relationship was found between market orientation and the university growth or decline status. Relationships were found between charismatic leadership style and the presence of a market orientation within a university. Relationships were found between aspects of charismatic leadership style and the growth or decline status of a university but overall where not significant as a whole. Recommendations are made for university presidents to consider based upon these results.

In two studies, this thesis depicts the relationship between minority group status in the United States, perceived discrimination, and coping with stress. Past literature on coping and its types – problem-focused versus emotion-focused – is inconsistent in terms of differences between minority status groups and majority groups. It remains unknown whether or why Black Americans and lesbian or gay Americans may demonstrate coping patterns that differ from White Americans and heterosexual Americans, respectively. What is altogether absent from the literature is the possible mediating factor of perceived discrimination experienced by these minority groups. That is, differences in internal, stable coping processes that manage stress may have been molded by one’s experience with discrimination. Study 1 examines the relationship between race (Black versus White) and coping, mediated by perceived discrimination. Study 2 examines the relationship between sexual orientation (lesbian or gay versus heterosexual) and coping, mediated by perceived discrimination. Both studies confirm the thesis that minority group members exhibit maladaptive, emotion-focused coping more than majority group members – but that this difference is explained by the minority group members’ perceived discrimination. Historical and political relevance, social implications, and possible limitations in design and interpretation are discussed. / text

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<p>Relationships between classes and objects in object-oriented software are necessary in order for the parts of the systems to provide dynamic behavior. These inherent relationships also create dependencies which can give rise to problems for software evolution of object-oriented software systems. Dependencies in software make systems difficult to understand, reuse, change and verify.</p><p>This thesis presents analytical and empirical investigations of dependency-related problems in software evolution of object-oriented software and on how such problems can be handled with dependency focused techniques, methods and processes.</p><p>The research presented in this thesis includes: Development of a programming language construct for controlling dependencies; formal experiments on code inspection techniques; exploring change strategies' effects on test suites; an industrial case study of regression test selection techniques for object-oriented software; proving the efficiency and defect detection capabilities of a novel regression test selection technique.</p><p>The thesis contributes to increased knowledge on the role of dependencies in software evolution of object-oriented software. Specific contributions are a programming language construct that can control access to dependencies in software. Other main contributions are insights on the efficiency of dependency focused code inspection techniques and contribution to the knowledge on dependency-based regression test selection techniques for large scale software. Another contribution is a novel change-based regression test selection technique.</p>

<p>lululemon athletica is a yoga inspired athletic clothing company. Since lululemon’s retail inception in 2000, the company has been quite successful; it has grown to sixty- four store and showrooms locations and has doubled revenue every year for the last four years. A lululemon core value is entrepreneurship. This thesis explores this entrepreneurial value focusing primarily on an individual retail location manager perspective. The entrepreneurial concepts utilized to explore entrepreneurship are: entrepreneurial ori- entation (EO), entrepreneurial management, company growth, entrepreneurship preservation, and corporate entrepreneurship.</p><p>Three empirical instruments assessing entrepreneurial concepts are employed in this thesis: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Stevenson’s Entrepreneurship, and a presented recombination of Stevenson’s Entrepreneurship concept. The EO instrument considers the dimensions pioneered by Miller (1983) and Dess and Lumpkin (1996) and includes: innovation, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy. Stevenson’s Entrepreneurship is assessed by the Operationalization of Stevenson’s Entrepreneurship scale developed by Brown et al. (2001) which determines management style proclivity between an entrepreneurial or administrative style.</p><p>The third empirical study recombines the Brown et al. (2001) instrument in an attempt to explore a possible ambidextrous management function of Stevenson’s Entrepreneurship concept.</p><p>Results from the empirical studies depict lululemon as an entrepreneurial organisation. The EO study results show that lululemon emphasizes innovative and proactive behaviours. The Operationalization of Stevenson’s Entrepreneurship scale determined that lululemon slightly favours an entrepreneurial management style. The presented ambidexterity instrument reveals individual location managers to be capable of ambidextrous management.</p><p>Two possible contributions to entrepreneurship study are proposed in this thesis. Analysis of the entrepreneurial orientation concept within lululemon realized a need for a communication and coordination EO dimension to be added to the existing dimensions. Also, the recombination of the Brown et al. (2001) instrument provides an alternate measurement scale assessing management ambidexterity.</p>

<p> </p><!--[if !mso]> <object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object><mce:style><! st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } --><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p> </p><p>Research is focusing on the process through which companies internationalize, which is often based on their size, operations, internal capabilities and competencies. Present global economic conditions enforced by the strong competitiveness factor stimulate every company to act in a different way. More and more well established companies encounter with an increasing need to reinforce and redefine its strategic direction. To address these issues companies are inevitably forced to act in a more agile entrepreneurial way. Therefore, entrepreneurial orientation postures were selected among other theoretical alternatives to identify the relationships and effects entrepreneurship can bring to the process of internationalization.</p><p> </p><p>The research was based on the data generated from three well established companies in Jonkoping County. These companies are bright representatives of the manufacturing sector in the region. Besides, they are characterized as market leaders in their preferred segments forming a trend in the industry they serve and keeping a strong competitive edge. Following the path of data collection, a process of individual internationalization was mapped retrospectively, with a focus on identifying entrepreneurial orientation leading this process.</p><p> </p><p>The findings indicate interesting aspects that are applicable to all three firms. We have concluded that nascent decision to internationalize was driven by the external factors which to a great extent accountable for major strategic renewal. Consequently, change in the strategy and processes related to its implementation foster entrepreneurial injections and considerably speed up international commitment. Furthermore, we have identified that theoretical background considerably differ from the practical matters performed in these companies.</p>