There is no abstract available for this thesis.

Marketing analytical studies of optimal salesforce compensation policies typically rely on a set of restrictive assumptions. In this paper, a model of decentralized salesforce compensation is developed, wherein some of the classical assumptions are challenged. Response Surface Methodology is used to optimize decentralized compensation policies over a set of simulated conditions. The proposed approach is then illustrated with two empirical applications in artificial and real settings. The objective is to provide some preliminary evidence about decentralized structures and to recommend salesforce compensation policies.

Thesis equivalent (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1966.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1972.

Thesis equivalent (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1966.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1972.

No description available.

Includes sample forms in pocket.

Eight years ago the members of the British Columbia Schools Trustees' Association recommended to the teaching profession in British Columbia that they give serious consideration to the proposition of including merit as one of the factors in the determination of their salaries. The British Columbia Teachers' Federation, representing the teaching profession in the province, was vigorous in its opposition to merit pay schedules. The purpose of the present study is to assess the attitudes of the rank and file in the profession, as opposed to the institutional stand of the Teachers' Federation towards this issue. A study of the existing salary structures for teachers in the province showed that the teachers were paid primarily on the basis of their training and experience. An examination of the literature on merit rating pointed out that the training and experience of a teacher could not be equated with his teaching performance, as the research studies conducted indicated very low correlationships between them. The first part of the study, therefore, concluded that the teachers in British Columbia are not being paid on the basis of their teaching experience. The attitudes of the teachers towards this issue of pay based on teaching performance were then examined. Responses from 402 teachers from all levels of the teaching profession were fed into an IBM computer and the results analyzed. Slightly less than half of them (48.0%) opposed merit rating, and the rest were either in favor (39.0%) or were uncertain or did not answer (13.0%). The study, however, showed that the opposition to merit pay was greater if this meant that salaries were to be affected by double increments or super-maxima salaries superimposed on the existing salary structure. The opposition would be lesser if the merit of a teacher was being recognized by rewarding him/her with supervisory posts carrying extra allowances, granting study leave or sabbatical leave, and awarding travel grants for approved purposes. The recommendations in the concluding chapter were made on this basis. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This thesis is comprised of three essays dealing with outside directors. The first essay addresses the signaling role that outside directors play. This is a role that is especially important for entrepreneurial firms, and has been relatively neglected in corporate governance research. The primary contribution of this chapter is in developing an analytical model and predictive framework on which future empirical and analytical research on directors' signaling role can be based. This chapter also contributes to the signaling theory literature by deriving a new type of equilibrium — the "stochastic separating equilibrium" — which may well be applicable in a broader set of models that incorporate signaling through middlemen. This equilibrium has an important realistic feature in that it permits the coexistence of both high and low quality firms in equilibrium. In the second study, I address directors' monitoring role. This essay examines whether a systematic relationship exists between a board's composition and discrete strategic decisions of a firm, which have been addressed in the literature as involving potential conflicting interests between managers and shareholders. To explore this question, I conducted seven meta-analyses of relevant strategic decisions, on which I could obtain data. The results provide evidence for the presence of systematic relationships between a board's composition and five out of the seven strategies examined. Interestingly, these systematic relationships provide only limited support to the predictions of agency theory, which is the predominant rational behind this line of research. In the third essay, I examine the effects of outside directors' stock-based compensation on one indicator of board monitoring effectiveness: firms' research and development (R&D) intensity. The results suggest that both the percentage of stock-based compensation and the proportion of stock options within it are positively related to firms' R & D expenditures. Moreover, stock-based compensation moderates the relationship between board composition and R & D intensity. These results highlight the need to reevaluate previous findings that addressed the effects of board composition on both firm performance and firm strategic decisions. / Business, Sauder School of / Accounting, Division of / Graduate