Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on July 31, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed April 26, 2007). PDF text: vii, 164 p. : ill. UMI publication number: AAT 3229555. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Sustainability has gained considerable interest from businesses, academics and in the press in the last two decades. However, the existing sustainability literature says little about what banks gain from moving towards sustainable development. Studies on the relationship between sustainability practices and performance in banks are extremely scarce and have produced inconclusive results. This thesis has two major purposes: to investigate the current sustainability practices in the banking sector and to examine the relationship between sustainability and performance in the banking sector. To achieve this, a sustainability model has been developed for the banking sector taking stakeholders’ effects into consideration. Content analysis was employed to collect the necessary data on stakeholder engagement, communication efforts to stakeholders, strategy and sustainability information. Performance data were obtained from the Bankscope database and 483 bank reports for EU & USA banks over the period 2006-2012 were examined. The data were first analysed using descriptive statistics. The main analysis involved bivariate tests and structural equation modelling path analysis. The results indicate that European banks pay more attention and communicate significantly more with different stakeholder groups than American banks. Banks responded to different degrees to stakeholder issues in their sustainability reports. Moreover, the results show that EU banks carry out more sustainability practices than USA banks. The results also show positive relationships between stakeholders’ salience and all aspects of sustainability; stakeholders’ communications and the environmental aspects of sustainability; size and all sustainability aspects except product sociology. The effect of stakeholder salience on sustainability is more significant in European banks pursuing a sustainability strategy while the effects of communications on sustainability are more significant in American banks with a non-sustainability strategy. Size affects sustainability more in banks with a non-sustainability strategy, but no differences were found for the effect of size on sustainability between the two regions. Furthermore, the results show that the environmental aspects of sustainability are not related to the banks’ performance, but a positive association with the social aspects of sustainability was found. This study is the first to develop a sustainability model for the banking sector. Hence, it makes significant contributions to the sustainability literature. It helps improve our understanding of the different dimensions of sustainability, how they are affected by different stakeholders and strategic orientations, and how they affect the performance of banks. The results of this study can help EU and USA banks to direct their efforts to areas that improve their engagement with stakeholders and their own performance.

abstract: For this thesis a Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to investigate the robustness of three latent interaction modeling approaches (constrained product indicator, generalized appended product indicator (GAPI), and latent moderated structural equations (LMS)) under high degrees of nonnormality of the exogenous indicators, which have not been investigated in previous literature. Results showed that the constrained product indicator and LMS approaches yielded biased estimates of the interaction effect when the exogenous indicators were highly nonnormal. When the violation of nonnormality was not severe (symmetric with excess kurtosis < 1), the LMS approach with ML estimation yielded the most precise latent interaction effect estimates. The LMS approach with ML estimation also had the highest statistical power among the three approaches, given that the actual Type-I error rates of the Wald and likelihood ratio test of interaction effect were acceptable. In highly nonnormal conditions, only the GAPI approach with ML estimation yielded unbiased latent interaction effect estimates, with an acceptable actual Type-I error rate of both the Wald test and likelihood ratio test of interaction effect. No support for the use of the Satorra-Bentler or Yuan-Bentler ML corrections was found across all three methods. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2010

This current study empirically tested elements of Ehlers and Clark's (2000) cognitive model of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptom maintenance using path analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). Ehlers and Clark's model suggests that a reciprocal relationship between cognitive appraisals of the traumatic event and characteristics of the trauma memory maintain symptoms by increasing one's sense of current threat. Participants in the current study were 405 undergraduates at a Midwestern university who each reported having experienced at least one traumatic event during his/her lifetime. Path analysis was utilized to examine the possibility that one's posttraumatic cognitions may mediate the relationship between the centrality of the traumatic event to one's sense of self and one's current level of PTSD symptoms. The reverse mediation was also tested for each of the PTSD symptom clusters. Results indicate that both event centrality and posttraumatic cognitions are unique and independent predictors of current symptom level. SEM procedures were used to examine possible mediation as well as to test a reciprocal relationship between these predictors. Results are generally consistent with those from the path analysis although additional research is necessary before any firm conclusions can be stated. Overall, the results of this study support aspects of the cognitive model of PTSD; cognitive appraisals of the self and memory characteristics of the event were highly related to levels of distress. However, the current study suggests that overly integrated trauma memories lead to greater distress and not poorly integrated ones as suggested by Ehlers and Clark. The relationship between trauma memories and PTSD is in need of further study as is the role of memory and cognitions in the temporal development of PTSD.

Many cultural and social psychological studies have been conducted at the societal level and at the individual level and generalised for all members in that society. This ignores the fact that there are many distinctive subgroups with their own subgroup cultures within a society. These subgroup cultures also have an influence on individuals, and need to be explored at an individual level. A survey in both English and Chinese was posted to 1,869 Chinese private equity professionals in the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong and resulted in 376 responses. The survey measured the core values and beliefs of individualism, collectivism, power distance, social axioms, Machiavellianism, Confucianism, and preferred negotiation style for those who have had overseas exposure in Anglo-Saxon countries and those who have not. The theories employed in the study were institutional theory, the resource-based view, and social psychological theories. A partial least squares structural equation model was used to determine relationships. Significant differences between Chinese private equity professionals who have worked or studied in Anglo-Saxon countries and those who had not were found for individualism, vertical collectivism, Machiavellian control and status, three aspects of Confucianism, and also the controlling negotiation style. The model devised can be adapted for other societal subgroups to measure, not just preferred negotiation styles, but other important organizational relationship-dependent factors such as leadership style, decision-making, and trust. The model can be employed to further understand many types of organisations and industries anywhere in the world.

Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-04-11T14:56:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Ana Codes.pdf: 2048956 bytes, checksum: 6908482d0513cd8fd796796eaf59a033 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-05-16T17:53:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Ana Codes.pdf: 2048956 bytes, checksum: 6908482d0513cd8fd796796eaf59a033 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-16T17:53:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Ana Codes.pdf: 2048956 bytes, checksum: 6908482d0513cd8fd796796eaf59a033 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Este trabalho se propõe a contribuir para o estudo da pobreza ao avaliar o potencial da Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (MEE) como método de análise “relacional” dessa questão social. Considerando que a evolução do pensamento científico sobre a pobreza tem convergido para a noção de que se trata de um problema multidimensional e complexo, em que vários fatores socioeconômicos relacionam-se entre si, reforçando-se mutuamente, coloca-se a necessidade de que tal complexidade seja refletida nas pesquisas empíricas sobre o tema. Dentro dessa perspectiva, os principais métodos utilizados nos estudos sobre pobreza – a dizer, os índices sintéticos, os sistemas de indicadores sociais e as análises de regressão – mostram-se insuficientes para abordarem o fenômeno “relacionalmente”. A MEE, por sua vez, destaca-se em meio ao estado da arte das metodologias quantitativas de pesquisa como um método promissor para ajudar a pensar objetos sociais relacionalmente. Ela é considerada como a técnica mais avançada do ponto de vista da capacidade de articulação de variáveis sociais, uma vez que permite calcular simultaneamente todas as relações entre os fatores associados a um fenômeno. Neste trabalho, a contemplação das potencialidades analíticas oferecidas pela MEE enquanto método de análise relacional acontece tanto em nível conceitual – em que se discutem também os potenciais dos outros métodos, de modo a se detectarem teoricamente as limitações e o alcance de cada um deles – quanto empiricamente, através da sua aplicação ao contexto da pobreza na Bahia; para isso, são utilizados os dados Censo IBGE 2000. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que, de fato, a MEE apresenta-se como um instrumento mais propício à abordagem relacional da pobreza do que os métodos quantitativos tradicionais, uma vez que é capaz de refletir, na esfera das investigações empíricas, a complexidade do fenômeno, em afinidade com as formulações teóricas mais recentes. Entretanto, sendo a MEE uma metodologia fortemente dependente da variação dos elementos considerados, observou-se que a relativa homogeneidade do fenômeno da pobreza na Bahia ofuscou a contemplação de todo o potencial analítico oferecido por tal instrumento. / Salvador

Though the benefits of physical activity are well-studied and accepted, researchers have struggled to identify models of health behavior that accurately predict exercise. This dissertation utilized two components of Bandura's Social-Cognitive Model (self-efficacy and outcome expectancies) and added the construct of fear of failure in order to evaluate what factors influence an individual's decision to exercise or avoid physical activity. Self-report data assessing fear or failure, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and physical activity were collected from 248 university students and were analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques in order to evaluate the proposed structural model, which hypothesized that fear of failure would negatively relate to the two Social-Cognitive variables, which were expected to positively predict physical activity engagement. Results revealed that although fear of failure did not add significantly to the Social-Cognitive model, a large portion of the variance in physical activity (i.e., 49%) could be accounted for by the model. Additionally, results indicated that outcome expectancies were a much stronger predictor of physical activity than self-efficacy beliefs. This finding is discussed in relation to how individual differences and genetics may influence how rewarding or aversive individuals find exercising. Implications for intervention and directions for future study, including alternate ways of adding affect to the model are discussed.

L’objet de la thèse est l’étude des fonctions de mentor exercées par les maîtres d’apprentissage du secteur artisanal. Cette question répond aux difficultés rencontrées par les dirigeants de TPE à fidéliser les nouveaux collaborateurs formés en apprentissage dans un secteur confronté à une pénurie structurelle de main d’œuvre qualifiée. À partir de la théorie de l’échange social, la thèse se focalise sur les effets du mentorat sur l’intention de quitter. Deux mécanismes ont été identifiés et explorés empiriquement : le mécanisme de clarification des valeurs et le mécanisme médiateur d’engagement. Ce double mécanisme opérant à la fois aux niveaux organisationnel et occupationnel a permis de saisir suivant quelles modalités les fonctions de mentorat, en particulier l’activité de role model, influencent positivement la rétention des apprentis à court terme dans l’entreprise et à long terme dans le métier. 230 apprentis des compagnons du devoir ont été interrogés par questionnaires, 6 mois après leur entrée en entreprise. Les données ainsi recueillies ont fait l’objet d’un traitement statistique par la méthode des équations structurelles / The purpose of this thesis is to study the mentoring functions exercised by apprenticeship masters in the craft industry. This issue echoes the difficulties small business leaders may have to retain new staff trained through apprenticeship in a trade suffering from a structural shortage of qualified workforce. Drawing on social exchange theory, this thesis focuses on the impact of mentoring on the intent to leave. Two mechanisms have been identified and empirically explored: the values clarity mechanism and the mediating commitment mechanism. This double mechanism, operating on both the organizational and occupational level, was instrumental in the understanding of how mentoring functions, and the role model activity in particular, have a positive impact on short-term apprentice retention in the business, and long-term retention in the profession. 230 French Compagnons apprentices have been interviewed with questionnaires after 6 months in the business. The collected data has been processed statistically using the structural equation modeling approach

abstract: Statistical mediation analysis allows researchers to identify the most important the mediating constructs in the causal process studied. Information about the mediating processes can be used to make interventions more powerful by enhancing successful program components and by not implementing components that did not significantly change the outcome. Identifying mediators is especially relevant when the hypothesized mediating construct consists of multiple related facets. The general definition of the construct and its facets might relate differently to external criteria. However, current methods do not allow researchers to study the relationships between general and specific aspects of a construct to an external criterion simultaneously. This study proposes a bifactor measurement model for the mediating construct as a way to represent the general aspect and specific facets of a construct simultaneously. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented to help to determine under what conditions researchers can detect the mediated effect when one of the facets of the mediating construct is the true mediator, but the mediator is treated as unidimensional. Results indicate that parameter bias and detection of the mediated effect depends on the facet variance represented in the mediation model. This study contributes to the largely unexplored area of measurement issues in statistical mediation analysis. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2016