Adult criminals' use of minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations is a significant problem in the United States. Despite strict laws prohibiting adult offenders from exploiting youth, these individuals aggressively pursue minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations. This quasi-experimental, cross-sectional study used resource dependency theory to explore the likelihood that adult criminal offenders in the U.S. will use minors for crimes that are associated with the support of terrorist organizations, based on crime typology, country of origin, and location of crime. Data were collected from a crime database maintained by the United States Sentencing Commission for 2012. Logistic regression was conducted to assess if crime typology, country of origin, and location of crime predicted the use of minors for crime by adult offenders in support of terrorist organizations. Results of the analysis were significant: Ï?2(7, N=485) = 180.18, p < .001, suggesting that crime typology, country of origin, and location of crime were significant predictors of the use of minors in crimes that are associated with the support of terrorist organizations. Drug trafficking and robbery crimes, and crimes committed in the Southern regions of the U.S. were most likely to involve minors when compared to other types of crimes and regions of the U.S., respectively. Positive social change implications stemming from this study include a recommendation to Congress to increase federal funding for law enforcement agencies and social programs, thereby improving the lives of minors that otherwise may become victims of adult criminal offenders who seek to use them to commit crimes in support of terrorist organizations.

In the United States, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) face a precarious future because of their heavy reliance on the financial support of government funding, other donor agencies, and philanthropic foundation resources. The purpose of this study is to understand how and to what extent leadership of NPOs can benefit from using funder-required performance data to improve organizational sustainability. Using Pfeffer and Salincik's resource dependency theory to explain organizational sustainability, this qualitative multiple case study of 10 NPOs in a northeastern U.S. state includes 14 interviews with NPO leadership, a document review of NPO 990 tax filings, annual performance reports, and board meeting minutes. All data were inductively coded and then subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Key findings indicated 6 overarching themes associated with NPO sustainability and funder-required performance measures that impact program sustainability but are mainly used for compliance: (a) NPO adoption and use of performance measures; (b) data collection and evaluation for external compliance; (c) information pertaining to financial, operational, and administrative decision making; (d) NPO leadership decisions regarding internal constructs, operations, and management; (e) resource dependency; and (f) sustainability practices. The implications for positive social change include strategies for NPO leaders to use to ensure survival, continuous community impact, and awareness for policymakers regarding legislative and regulatory developments that may inadvertently harm NPOs.

In recent decades, many rural, natural resource-dependent communities have experienced ubiquitous and oftentimes substantial economic decline due to downturns in their commodity-oriented industries. In spite of this, communities with access to varying forms of natural capital have experienced an upsurge in activities such as recreation,tourism, second home growth, and retirement in-migration. If managed properly, amenity-oriented development has potential to reverse economic decline by attracting tourists, entrepreneurs, younger and more educated workers, and retirees, and may ultimately generate economic diversification, local growth, and an improved quality of life for residents. While there are literally thousands of potential measures of well-being, this study aimed to identify potential indicators of amenity-transition by examining community social and economic capital. To examine such a complex social and economic transition, these indicators were coupled with indicators from the tourism and amenity-development literature, and linked to concepts from Resiliency Theory from the ecosystem science literature, in a longitudinal study of amenity transition communities in the Pacific Northwest. Results focus on measures of social organization and economic sustainability in three study communities: McCall, ID; Leavenworth, WA; and Prineville, OR. Key informant interviews and historical documents were used to develop adaptive curves for each community, and to help evaluate the concepts and indicator variables that contribute to community resilience and adaptability. Secondary indicator data serve as a quantitative linkage between Social Capital and Resiliency Theories and the adaptive phases communities may experience throughout this transition. The results identify key historical periods for each community as residents adapt to economic and social change. Using key informant interviews coupled with secondary data provided a clearer picture of how each community has transformed and redefined itself throughout transition.

Rural communities in the western U.S. and Alaska are highly dependent upon surrounding publicly-owned forests for various economic and non-economic values. Historically, limited data has hampered the understanding of such community-resource linkages. As a result, community interests may not be adequately considered in forest management plan development and policy formulation. Addressing this imbalance is an important issue for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), particularly as it shifts from timberdominated goals to a more holistic ecosystem-based form of management. This study seeks to understand community-resource use linkages, dependency, and vulnerability surrounding the Chugach and Tongass NFs using place-level socioeconomic data from the 2000 U.S. Census in combination with permit data from the USFS’s Timber Information Management Data System (TIM) and Special Use Data System (SUDS). Information on permittees’ activities on forestland and socioeconomic profiles of permittee’s community-of-origin are found to be valuable, not only for forest management and planning purposes, but also for community-level social assessment. An examination of 2007 permit data found that a majority of permit holders were local residents. These communities are found to be dependent on the two forests for various types of activities and are thus more likely to be vulnerable to changes in forest management and policies. The analysis also identified some limitations that may affect the quality of permit data and its potential use in community impact assessments. Despite these limitations of permit data, the methodologies utilized here demonstrate how TIM and SUDS data, in combination with U.S. Census data, could be used to describe Alaska residents’ socioeconomic profiles for communities located in close proximity to the Tongass and Chugach NFs. Such information can assist USFS managers in deriving community-level estimates of forest resource use, degree of dependency, and vulnerability to the likely impacts of alternatives management approaches. Finally, recommendations are given to improve data recording, maintenance, and use in order to better understand communities that are dependent on forest resources in both the Chugach and Tongass NFs, and to specifically identify those communities potentially vulnerable to changes in forest management policies.

Firms use former government officials (FGOs) on the board of directors to create external linkage with the government. I examine investors’ perception of FGOs on the board of directors and how institutional environments affect it. Using a large sample of 23,444 hand-collected observations from 31 non-U.S. countries, I show that political directors (PDs) are associated with improved investors’ perception. Drawing from political science literature, I theorize and show that former senior bureaucrats (SBDs), but not former ministers (MDs) or government advisors (ADs), drive the improved investors’ perception. Furthermore, I show that stronger institutional environments, measured by economic freedom, lead to less improved investors’ perception of PDs. Here too SBDs drives my results associated with and economic freedom, but not MDs or ADs, lending support to my initial findings.

The implication that first day returns of initial public offerings are a consequence of the imbalance of power between issuer and underwriter has been suggested more than it has been tested. An important tool in such an analysis has been missing. Using a resource contribution approach to bargaining power, measures of underwriter and issuer power are created. Significant results with both measures show that consistent with theory, underwriter power is positively associated with underpricing, while issuer power's association is negative. The underwriter power measure compares favorably in this study to Carter-Manaster's prestige measure. The theory presented also suggests that issuers and underwriters engage in a short-term cooperative agreement to bring critical resources to issuers to enhance their initial public offering. Contributed resources form the basis for each firms bargaining power which is strongest when setting the initial file price. Results show the importance of resource power on the distribution of proceeds and how power changes during the registration process. Finally this theory expands signaling theory and suggests that issuers under the influence and direction of their underwriter make pre-IPO organizational changes to send signals of quality to preemptively address investor's concerns. These pre-IPO gambits are intended to increase IPO proceeds, but come at a price. Theories of power are used to create a measure of the relative strength of these actors and find that making TMT changes significantly decreases underpricing. Although underwriter power is significantly associated with change, relative power does not reduce the amount of change signaled. / Business Administration

In early twentieth century Canada, the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic struck far and wide (Herring, 2007) and its effect was greater on indigenous populations, particularly the Inuit (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2013). In 1906, the Mountain Sanatorium was founded by the Hamilton Health Association (HHA) in an effort to curb the disease (Wilson, 2006) and was designated as a treatment centre for Inuit from the Eastern Arctic. Controlling TB became a movement extensively documented by The Hamilton Spectator – a prime news provider. This research concerns the way in which social problems emerge and the responses they generate. Drawing on the literature on social problems, this thesis examines the HHA’s claims-making activities regarding tuberculosis in 1953-1963 along with The Spectator’s role in helping to define TB as a problem. It examines 1) how the HHA constructed TB as a problem 2) how the HHA understood the problems and solutions of tuberculosis; 3) it ascertains whether the HHA and The Spectator drew from a biomedical model or considered social determinants of health (SDOH) in their control and reportage of the disease; 4) the portrayal and treatment of Inuit patients; 5) the role of legitimacy; and 6) the importance of Pfeffer and Salancik’s resource dependency theory in the Sanatorium’s efforts to survive as an institution. This was executed through a content analysis of the HHA’s annual reports and newspaper articles by The Spectator. The examination of this case through the theory of social problems and resource dependency provides a lens to understand how TB became a problem and why hospitals are more than treatment facilities. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to find out when Research and Development (R&D) becomes a suitable attribute for a production company to outsource. In an environment where innovations are following up quickly up and uncertainty about the type of innovation and customer is a fact, external sourcing can bring a competitive advantage. The empirical evidence shows that when R&D is outsourced the total cost does not increase at a due cause of outsourcing in this given study.</p><p>Although a lot of theory explains outsourcing as a cost increasing factor, the internal experience and frequent relation between the technical production company Beta and its R&D vendor company Alfa can decrease costs considerably due to lower communication and governance costs. This was not explicitly expressed in related theory and is therefore a contribution to the academia as well as for managers who seek to find an answer to the question of when to outsource and when not to outsource.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to find out when Research and Development (R&amp;D) becomes a suitable attribute for a production company to outsource. In an environment where innovations are following up quickly up and uncertainty about the type of innovation and customer is a fact, external sourcing can bring a competitive advantage. The empirical evidence shows that when R&amp;D is outsourced the total cost does not increase at a due cause of outsourcing in this given study. Although a lot of theory explains outsourcing as a cost increasing factor, the internal experience and frequent relation between the technical production company Beta and its R&amp;D vendor company Alfa can decrease costs considerably due to lower communication and governance costs. This was not explicitly expressed in related theory and is therefore a contribution to the academia as well as for managers who seek to find an answer to the question of when to outsource and when not to outsource.

Purpose: Understand different needs for accountability and governance among financial firms,based on environmental and structural factors. Design/methodology/approach: By using disciplinary reports published by SFSA the interpretation of corporate governance regulation will be studied. Findings: The study identified important corporate governance factors which can be explained and understood by analyzing through the multiple-theory. Complex environmental aspects, such as regulations and multiple stakeholders, demands for extensive internal and external controls. However, the aspect of knowledge does not seem to be fully explained by previous studies. Originality/value: The result could be a contribution to further discussions on how regulations can develop. Moreover, the result can add empirical data to further develop the multiple-theory.