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The present study evaluated the applicability of the theory of planned behavior (TRP, Ajzen, 1988: Ajzen and Fishbein) to the prediction and understanding of a young woman's intentions to raise or place her child for adoption. During a woman's second and third trimester of pregnancy self-report measures were administered assessing a woman's intentions, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control about both pregnancy resolution choices (i.e., raising or placing a child for adoption). Participants were 52 Caucasian women (26 who placed; 26 who raised) ranging in age from 15-32 (M =19). In most respects the findings supported the TPB. However, subjective norms did not significantly enter the regression model in predicting behavioral intentions due to the multicollinearity between it and attitudes. Consequently, subjective norms was replaced by its salient measure of normative beliefs in another regression model. This hierarchical regression analyses revealed that attitudes, normative beliefs, perceived behavioral control and age significantly predicted a woman's intention to raise or place her child. A logistic regression revealed that behavioral intention was the single best predictor for the final pregnancy resolution behavior, suggesting that it successfully mediated the influences of all other variables studied. Further analysis revealed that women who placed versus those who raised their children differed on a number of behavioral beliefs, outcome evaluations, normative beliefs, and control beliefs. / Master of Science

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The purpose of this collective case study was to discover the decision-making processes used by senior student affairs officers when making wicked decisions related to the retention of specialized, at-risk student populations. Wicked decisions are complex, resistant to resolutions, lead to other problems, and are essentially unique. In this study, decisions related to retention of Black males; students with mental health issues; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer student retention fall within the wicked problem category and were the focus of this study. These decisions are usually the responsibility of divisions of student affairs in higher education settings and the senior student affairs officer. Hence, the senior student affairs officer is tasked with making responsible and effective decisions that foster the success of all students. This dissertation focused on the decision-making processes, practices, and procedures student affairs officers use to support the retention of select special populations served in higher education. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Franchising has become a proven and acceptable method of distributing products and services for both domestic and foreign markets. The pressures on franchisors to search for foreign markets have led to heightened interest in international franchising. According to Franchising in the Economy (1990), restaurants of all types rank number one, followed by business aids and services. Therefore, the restaurant industry leads the domain of business in international franchising. The primary objective of this study was to develop a model based on experts' opinion for the selection of different franchising methods to be used as a guideline for restaurant companies that plan to franchise internationally. Environmental factors that affect international franchising in the Pan Pacific region are identified. The major methods used in franchising are: 1. direct franchising, 2. master franchise agreements, and 3. joint venture agreements. The recommendation of the most popular franchising methods for Singapore, Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia are studied. / Ph. D.

In order to explain presidential decisions to use force, a model is developed that incorporates three distinct decision-making environments. The results indicate the president is responsive not only to domestic and international environments, but also to the resource evaluation environment. The evidence here demonstrates that while these two environments are important the president can't use force arbitrarily; rather, his evaluation of resources available for the use of force can limit his ability to engage the military during crisis situations.

The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct empirical exploratory research to determine whether marketing strategic objectives of U.S. subsidiaries of German firms would differ, given firms' differences in perception of competitive position and market trends.

During the past twenty years, extensive research has been conducted concerning the judgmental processes of labor arbitrators. Previous research, sometimes referred to as policy capturing, attempted to identify the criteria or standards used by arbitrators to support their decisions. Much of the research was qualitative. Due to the categorical nature of the dependent variables, log-linear models such as logit regression have been used to examine decisional relationships in more recent studies. The decision cues used by arbitrators in 249 published alcohol- and drug-related arbitration cases were examined. The justifications for arbitrators' decisions were fitted into Carroll Daugherty's "seven tests" of just cause. The dominant cues were proof of misconduct, the appropriateness of the penalty, and the business necessity of management's action. Foreknowledge of the rule by the grievant and the consequences of a violation, equal treatment of the grievant, and an appropriate investigation by management were also important decision cues. In general, grievants in alcohol and drug arbitration cases fared as well as grievants in any other disciplinary arbitrations. However, when the cases were analyzed based on the legal status of the drug, illicit drug users were at a considerable disadvantage.

Public administration scholars have raised serious concerns about loss of democratic accountability when government services are outsourced to private forprofit businesses because of the very different values and missions of the two sectors. Particular concern for democratic accountability arises when administrative discretion is delegated to governments' private sector agents. Furthermore, if contractors may adversely impact individual rights or interests, or may adversely impact vulnerable populations, special democratic responsibilities arise. It is these three features of outsourcing transactions that constitute the elements of the proposed framework used in this research in order to assess need for heightened attention to democratic accountability. Some scholars argue for application of constitutional and administrative law norms to some government contractors. / Public service ethics and transparency requirements found in administrative law are heavily value-laden and mission-driven. If applied to certain government contractors, they can help to bridge the sectors' mission and value differences, thus enhancing democratic accountability for the services performed by governments' private sector agents. This research offers an analytical framework for identifying features of outsourcing transactions that call for enhanced democratic accountability measures such as ethics and transparency requirements, and explores the application of ethics and transparency requirements to governments' contractors. Contracts and laws governing three Florida local government service categories were subjected to close systematic textual and legal analysis: residential trash collection, building code inspection, and inmate health care. / The analysis revealed circumstances calling for greater attention to democratic accountability in that the selected outsourcing transactions delegated to contractors the authority to exercise police power, make public policy, and commit expenditures of public funds. Contracts and laws haphazardly required contractors to abide by public service ethics and transparency requirements, thus beginning to adapt the mission and value system of their private sector agents to those of government. / Rebecca L. Keeler. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

As long as one security is classified into AFS category, I document that banks strategically time the recognitions of gains and losses on AFS securities to smooth earnings, to meet earnings targets, to reduce regulatory costs, or to facilitate seasonal equity offering. These evidences collaborate with my previous results that banks prefer classifying credit risky securities into AFS rather than into trading category. / Finally, I investigate market reactions to fair value changes on AFS securities and to trading revenues from trading assets. I show that trading revenues are more persistent, with greater value relevance, and drive more significant stock returns. This evidence indicates that artificially classifying securities which are held for trading purpose into AFS category may have negative impacts on firm values. / Given the investment decisions made by the managers, the second issue studied in this thesis is the financial reporting decisions made by banks. To elaborate, banks have discretions to classify the debt securities into available-for-sale (AFS) category vs. trading category depending on the purpose of the holding, while the classification decisions have very different impacts on firms' income statement. Therefore, I study how accounting treatments of AFS and trading category and their different impacts on firms' income statements affect reporting decisions. I find banks inclined to classify credit-riskier securities into AFS rather than into trading category, when banks have weak interest revenues, have high level of income-increasing discretional accruals, have concentrated assets, or have high level of risky assets. But I do not find classification decision is related to bank's capital adequacy ratio. / Keywords: Bank holding companies; debt security investments; managerial compensation; trading assets; available-for-sale; SFAS 115; gains trading. / This study examines U.S. banks' investment behaviors as well as their financial reporting decisions on debt security investments. Particularly, I focus on two separate but related issues. The first issue examined is whether and how managerial incentives, influenced by the compensation contracts, affect managers' investment decisions on debt securities in the U.S. banking industry. Using a sample composed of top 1,000 bank holding companies from 2001 to 2009, I find that managers, when their wealth is more sensitive to stock return volatility, tend to structure the firms' debt investments with a higher proportion of credit risky securities. Provided that price of credit risky debt securities slumped during the recent financial crisis, that empirical evidence is consistent with the view that managerial compensation may induce excess risk-taking in the U.S. banking industry. The finding is relevant to both researchers and practitioners when they consider restructuring bankers' compensation. / Zhou, Chunquan. / Advisers: Woody Y. W. Wu; Danqing Young. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-08(E), Section: A. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.