E-Commerce research shows that existing studies on online consumer choice behavior has focused on comparative studies of channel or store choice (online or offline), or online store choice (different e-tailers). Relatively less effort has been devoted to consumers’ online brand choice behavior within a single e-tailer. The goal of this research is to model online brand choice, including generating loyalty variables, setting up base model, and exploring the effects of Internet-specific attributes, i.e., order delivery, webpage display and order confirmation, on online brand choice at the SKU level. Specifically, this research adopts the Multinomial Logit Model (MNL) as the estimation methods. To minimize the model bias, the refined smoothing constants for loyalty variables (brand loyalty, size loyalty, and SKU loyalty) are generated using the Nonlinear Estimation Algorithm (NEA). The findings suggest that SKU loyalty is a better predictor of online brand choice than brand loyalty and size loyalty. While webpage display has little effect on the brand choice, order delivery has positive effect on the choice. Online order confirmation turns out to be helpful in choice estimation. Moreover, online consumers are not sensitive to net price of the alternatives, but quite sensitive to price promotion. These results have meaningful implications for marketing promotions in the online environment and suggestions for future research.

Cette thèse propose d'étudier dans quelle mesure la diversité du genre au conseil d'administration influence la qualité des états financiers. Plus précisément, cette thèse explore la relation entre la diversité du genre au conseil d'administration et la qualité des états financiers en soulignant l'influence des attributs des femmes administrateurs sur la qualité des états financiers.Cette thèse repose sur un large échantillon d'entreprises françaises appartenant à l'indice CAC All-shares d'Euronext Paris entre 2001 et 2010. Après avoir contrôlé l'endogénéité et d'autres facteurs spécifiques au conseil d'administration, à l'entreprise et à l'industrie, nos résultats montrent que la diversité du genre au conseil d‟administration est positivement associée à la qualité des états financiers. De plus, nos résultats mettent en lumière une influence significative des attributs des femmes administrateurs sur la relation entre la diversité du genre dans les conseils d'administration et la qualité des états financiers. En ce qui concerne plus particulièrement les attributs, nous avons trouvé que l'appartenance au comité d‟audit, l'expertise comptable et financière et l'expérience des femmes ont un impact positif et significatif sur la qualité des états financiers. L'ensemble de ces résultats témoigne de l'importance des compétences dans les conseils d'administration diversifiés en termes de genre et révèlent la pertinence des attributs des femmes administrateurs pour assurer la qualité des états financiers. / This thesis proposes to study to what extent board gender diversity influence the quality of financial statements. Specifically, this thesis explores the relation between gender-diverse boards and financial statements quality by highlighting the value relevance of female directors‟ attributes for enhancing the quality of financial statements.This thesis focuses on a large sample of French firms belonging to the CAC-All shares index listed on Euronext Paris over the period 2001 to 2010. We find, after controlling for endogeneity and other board, firm and industry specific factors, that board gender diversityis positively associated with the quality of financial statements. Further, our findings provide evidence of significant influence of female directors‟ attributes on the relation between gender-diverse boards and financial statements quality. With regard to female directors‟ attributes, we find concrete evidence to suggest that audit committee memberships, financial expertise and experience of women have substantial impact on the quality of financial statements. Taken together, these results testify the effective monitoring skills of gender-diverse boards and the value relevance of female directors‟ attributes for ensuring the quality of financial statements. Finally, an important implication of thesis is that the decision to appoint women on corporate boards should be more based on their statutory and demographic attributes than blind implementation of gender quotas.