In today’s technological environment, organizational capabilities for managing change are regarded as important for business survival and growth. In particular, dynamic organizational capabilities have attracted considerable research interest over the past decade. Recently several studies have suggested that dynamic capabilities may be associated with a concept termed organizational fitness. What is not clear in this emerging research stream is whether firms with superior organizational fitness are more likely to prosper than unfit firms. In addition, relatively little attention has been directed toward creating a systemic model of dynamic capabilities that explains organizational fitness. The nature of fitness has been intensively debated in the biological sciences over a period of several decades. A confusing variety of fitness definitions have emerged from this literature. The lack of an agreed definition of fitness has resulted in several streams of research on organizational fitness. As a result of this fragmentation, there has been little progress toward answering the question of how to measure organizational fitness. The fragmentation in organizational fitness literature is problematic, because research into the relationship between organizational fitness and firm performance is not well-advanced. In this study, organizational fitness is defined in terms of organizational capability to produce variation. By defining fitness in this way, the tautological criticisms leveled against existing concepts of fitness are avoided. The definition of fitness proposed here accommodates both an evolutionary learning perspective and a perspective of strategic management, and thus reflects an integrative approach to the concept. A notable feature of the literature exploring organizational fitness is that it has been focused on large corporations. However, a growing body of literature suggests that SMEs are different from large firms and need to be examined in their own right. SMEs are important contributors to business in most countries throughout the world. This study addresses that perceived gap in the literature and asks: What relationship, if any, is there between organizational fitness and business performance for SMEs? Theory is developed and tested here by means of a large sample of SMEs in New Zealand. Two distinct aspects of organizational fitness are identified for SMEs. First, survival fitness is associated with generic combinative capabilities. Second, growth fitness is associated with knowledge assimilation and transformation. SME growth fitness and survival fitness are each found to be positively related to business performance under a variety of contexts. Further, an increase of growth fitness and survival fitness provides a means of alleviating selection pressures for SMEs. That is, dynamic capabilities of knowledge assimilation and integration are found to be positively associated with SME business performance. In contrast to studies that advocate SME development of context-dependent capabilities, the findings of this study suggest an alternative perspective: variable selection pressures can be influenced by SMEs with a high level of survival and growth fitness.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 16, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-94).

Thesis (M. Com.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-131). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2006 Jul 29.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-116).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2006 Nov 30

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-173).

abstract: This study presents a structural model of coping with dating violence. The model integrates abuse frequency and solution attribution to determine a college woman's choice of coping strategy. Three hundred, twenty-four undergraduate women reported being targets of some physical abuse from a boyfriend and responded to questions regarding the abuse, their gender role beliefs, their solution attribution and the coping behaviors they executed. Though gender role beliefs and abuse severity were not significant predictors, solution attribution mediated between frequency of the abuse and coping. Abuse frequency had a positive effect on external solution attribution and external solution attribution had a positive effect on the level of use of active coping, utilization of social support, denial and acceptance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2011

abstract: Lexical diversity (LD) has been used in a wide range of applications, producing a rich history in the field of speech-language pathology. However, for clinicians and researchers identifying a robust measure to quantify LD has been challenging. Recently, sophisticated techniques have been developed that assert to measure LD. Each one is based on its own theoretical assumptions and employs different computational machineries. Therefore, it is not clear to what extent these techniques produce valid scores and how they relate to each other. Further, in the field of speech-language pathology, researchers and clinicians often use different methods to elicit various types of discourse and it is an empirical question whether the inferences drawn from analyzing one type of discourse relate and generalize to other types. The current study examined a corpus of four types of discourse (procedures, eventcasts, storytelling, recounts) from 442 adults. Using four techniques (D; Maas; Measure of textual lexical diversity, MTLD; Moving average type token ratio, MATTR), LD scores were estimated for each type. Subsequently, data were modeled using structural equation modeling to uncover their latent structure. Results indicated that two estimation techniques (MATTR and MTLD) generated scores that were stronger indicators of the LD of the language samples. For the other two techniques, results were consistent with the presence of method factors that represented construct-irrelevant sources. A hierarchical factor analytic model indicated that a common factor underlay all combinations of types of discourse and estimation techniques and was interpreted as a general construct of LD. Two discourse types (storytelling and eventcasts) were significantly stronger indicators of the underlying trait. These findings supplement our understanding regarding the validity of scores generated by different estimation techniques. Further, they enhance our knowledge about how productive vocabulary manifests itself across different types of discourse that impose different cognitive and linguistic demands. They also offer clinicians and researchers a point of reference in terms of techniques that measure the LD of a language sample and little of anything else and also types of discourse that might be the most informative for measuring the LD of individuals. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Speech and Hearing Science 2011

This dissertation involved the development of a new construct, perceived privacy breach (PPB), to evaluate how a person perceives breaches of privacy in terms of whether they perceive any exchange of information was fair or not and how they believe it will impact people whose information has been shared. This instrument assists researchers to understand how a person perceives a possible breach of privacy. The PPB instrument was created after conducting a pilot study of approximately 200 undergraduate students and testing the data for possible dimensions in an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The EFA resulted in a concise 14 item questionnaire with three dimensions: dispersion, fairness, and impact. The PPB instrument was utilized in a larger study with 285 participants after a small pilot test (n=27) to study the impact of perceptions of privacy preaches upon a person's level of concern for his or her own privacy and the effect it has on their trust in organizations to protect their privacy in relation to their usage of Internet search engines. It also studied how the combination of perceptions of privacy breaches, general privacy concern, and trust had an impact on a person's anxiety and decision to continue using online search engines. The study also theorized that a person's concern for privacy and use of search engines might result in cognitive dissonance, which might have an effect on the way people think about privacy issues. The model was analyzed using a two step process. First a confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) using the software application EQS was run on the measurement model, in which all the instruments were assessed. The perceived privacy breach instrument had a Cronbach's alpha value of .89. The structural model was run in EQS and achieved a CFI fit of .86. There was a statistically significant relationship between perceived privacy breach and privacy concern, and between privacy concern and trust. Increase in trust was shown to have an effect on technology usage attitude. Hypotheses involving cognitive dissonance showed statistically significant results in the opposite direction.