A blog, a shortened form of weblog, is a website where an author shares thoughts in posts or entries. Most blogs permit readers to add comments to posts and thereby be a conversational mechanism. One way that companies have started to use blogs is to monitor their corporate image (in this dissertation, the term image is used in reference to corporate, brand and/or product image). This study focuses on how common socio-psychological processes mediate consumers’ revelation of corporate image in the blogosphere. Centering resonance analysis, a means of measuring similarity between two bodies of text, is used in conjunction with multidimensional scaling to locate text as cognitive objects in a space. Clusters are then detected and measured to quantify diversity in the thoughts expressed. Detected patterns are studied from a social process theory perspective, where complex phenomena are hypothesized to be the result of the interaction of simpler processes. A majority of blog commenters compromise the expression of their thoughts to gain social acceptance. This study identifies the most extreme of such people so companies who monitor blogs can assign less weight to image indications gained from them as they may be merely expressing thoughts that are intended to maintain social acceptance. It was also found that single-theme blogs attract a readership with similarly narrow interests. The boldest and most diverse thinkers among comment writers have the most impact because of their ability to provoke the thinking of others. However, commenters who repeat the same ideas have little effect, suggesting that introducing shills is unlikely to shift the sentiment of a blog’s readership. People participate in blog communities for reasons (e.g., need for community) that may undermine thought diversity. However, there may be value in serving those needs even though no valuable insights are provided into image or directions for product development. Members of homogeneous-thinking communities were observed to more actively participate, with greater longevity. This may increase loyalty to the company hosting the blog.

Yes / Drawing on collective contributions and group performance perspectives, this paper examines the role of board diversity in firms’ R&D investment decisions. Building on a fault-line argument about a team’s demographic attributes, this study also decomposes the impact of demographic and cognitive diversity on R&D spending. The study sample contains UK data of non-financial companies covering the period between 2005 and 2018. We employ panel data analysis techniques and control for potential endogeneity issues through the application of the two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimations. The findings demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between board diversity and level of corporate R&D spending. The findings also show cognitive diversity as significantly positively associated with corporate R&D investments. Demographic diversity, however, has an insignificant relationship with corporate spending on R&D. The results further show that demographic diversity negatively moderates the relationship between cognitive diversity and spending on R&D. Our main findings document that the board’s attributes as a group significantly influence decisions of strategic importance such as, investment in R&D projects. The findings on sub-dimensions of board diversity imply that as compared to demographic diversity, functional/cognitive diversity is more relevant to strategic decisions and related outcomes. The study has practical implications for shareholders in documenting the importance of board diversity, and policy implications for regulators in highlighting the separate roles of behavioural and cognitive diversity in shaping firms’ strategic investment decisions.

Purpose: The focus of this research is to understand the impact of diversity on global leadership performance. Design/methodology/approach: From the literature review the researcher developed the components of the LEAD³ tool as well as, devised the questions for the in-depth semi-structured interviews that would test the tool. The questions centred on the three constructs of leadership, diversity and organisational factors and interviews were conducted between 2009 and 2010. The sample consisted of 79 senior leaders from seven companies across seven differing sectors and covered 22 different countries across 5 continents. A case study research strategy using a hybrid of open coding, thematic analysis and content analysis was employed. Findings: A series of themes were found under the three constructs: For Global leadership – competencies, connecting, rigour, stakeholder satisfaction, value based professional, influences. For Diversity – inclusivity, performance measures, role modelling, positioning diversity and innovation. For Organisational factors – organisational way of being, facilitating diversity, behavioural practices, ways of working, issues of concern and driving diversity. Issues emerging from the comparative analysis consist of cultural dimensions, engagement and learning. Research Limitations: Issues on reliability and validation, translation in measurement, environmental inconsistency, interviewer/interviewee bias, and ecological fallacy often levied at qualitative research. Research Contribution and Value: The findings tested against the tool, confirm the robustness and relevancy of the LEAD³ as an operational tool that will enable leaders to focus and integrate their diversity efforts. LEAD³ is encapsulated within an integrated change management framework and proposes a multi-level and multi-dimensional approach to global leadership and diversity that also includes performance drivers, stakeholder groupings, performance outcomes and organisational activities (change interventions). Future Research:Finally, an attempt is made to develop a competency framework for leadership and diversity from data emerging from findings. This is named the Global Leader Index for Diversity (GLIDE) – a framework that recognises the diverse aspects of a global leader’s role and identifies associated skills and behaviours that global leaders of the future need to develop.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivete Picarelli.pdf: 5924486 bytes, checksum: f9fcec31acfaba8dc397ebd1ca129ec9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-11-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research aimed to check the way how the pedagogical practice takes place in face of the cognitive diversities, shown in this thesis, such as the variability of factors and/or elements which influence on individual learning, in heterogeneous classes at the early years of Elementary School. Thus, the question guiding this research was: ―Which are the conceptions and pedagogical practices that favor teaching and learning, taking into account the cognitive diversity of students in classes, necessarily heterogeneous, at the early years of Elementary School?‖. In order to clearly answer to the question proposed, we conducted a documentary analysis, a bibliographic survey, and a field research. Through documentary analysis, the study analyzed data on the universalization of primary education and the heterogeneity observed in this universalization, some aspects of the Program ―Ler e Escrever‖ and the Program ―Bolsa Alfabetização‖, in addition to the search for documents, such as the initial diagnoses of students and partial feelers recorded by teachers and coordinators. By means of the bibliographical survey, an increased literature review was carried out, addressing the principles, concepts, and assumptions which provide this study with theoretical support. The field research was used to supplement the documentary analysis and the bibliographic survey with the data obtained along with the research subjects, teachers, coordinator, vice principal, and principal at a school of the Cycle I of Elementary School. This thesis contributes to a reflection on teaching and learning in each heterogeneous class as a micro space with multiple interactions that have strong meaning and sense which characterize the teaching work as being also an emotional activity, where the watchful and loving look, the sensitive perception, and intentionality provide the pedagogical practice with meaning / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi verificar como ocorre a prática pedagógica diante das diversidades cognitivas, evidenciadas nesta tese, como a variabilidade de fatores e/ou elementos que influenciam a aprendizagem individual, em classes heterogêneas dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Nesse sentido, a questão que norteou esta pesquisa foi: ―Quais são as concepções e práticas pedagógicas que favorecem o ensino e a aprendizagem, considerando-se a diversidade cognitiva dos alunos em classes, necessariamente heterogêneas, dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental?‖. A fim de responder com clareza a questão proposta, foi realizada uma análise documental, um levantamento bibliográfico e uma pesquisa de campo. Via análise documental, o estudo analisou dados sobre a universalização da educação básica e a heterogeneidade observada nessa universalização, aspectos do Programa Ler e Escrever e do Programa Bolsa Alfabetização, além da busca de outros documentos, tais como os diagnósticos iniciais dos alunos e as sondagens parciais registradas pelos professores e coordenadores. Por meio da pesquisa bibliográfica, uma revisão ampliada da literatura foi realizada, abordando os princípios, conceitos e pressupostos que proporcionam sustentação teórica a este estudo. A pesquisa de campo foi utilizada para complementar a análise documental e a pesquisa bibliográfica com os dados obtidos junto aos sujeitos da pesquisa, professores, coordenador, vice-diretor e diretor de uma escola de Ciclo I do Ensino Fundamental. Esta tese contribui para uma reflexão sobre o ensino e a aprendizagem em cada classe heterogênea como um microespaço com múltiplas interações de intenso significado e sentido que caracterizam o trabalho docente como uma atividade também emocional, onde o olhar atento e amoroso, a percepção sensível e a intencionalidade dão significado e sentido à prática pedagógica

<p>This dissertation is a collection of three papers, each one being a chapter. The running subject of interest in all the papers is the strategic behavior of individuals in different environments. In the first chapter, I experimentally investigate collusive behavior under simultaneous interaction in multiple strategic settings, a phenomenon which I call multiple contacts. I investigate how multiple contacts impact collusive behavior when the players are symmetric or asymmetric. The second chapter is a joint work with Dr. Brian Roberson. In this chapter, we examine the role of cognitive diversity in teams on performance in a large innovation contest setting. We use a theoretical model to derive conditions under which increasing diversity can improve the performance in the large contest. Finally, in the third chapter, a joint work with Dr. Yaroslav Rosokha and Dr. Masha Shunko, we experimentally study players' behavior when they interact in an infinitely repeated environment, where the state of the world in each period is stochastic and dependent on a transition rule. Our main questions are how the transition rule impacts behavior and whether asymmetry in players impacts this.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In the first chapter, I study the phenomenon of multiple contacts using a laboratory experiment with multiple symmetric or asymmetric prisoners' dilemma games. When agents interact in multiple settings, even if defection or deviation from collusion in one setting can not be credibly punished in the same setting, it may be punishable in other settings. This can increase the incentive to collude. I observe a statistically significant increase in probability of punishment in one game after defection in another game under multiple contacts, but only when the games are asymmetric in payoffs. While punishment of defection increases in some situations, I do not find any significant increase in collusion due to multiple contacts in either symmetric or asymmetric environment. In addition to this result, to find further support for the theory which suggests that agents should use different strategies under multiple contacts, I estimate the underlying strategies that subjects use in my experiment. To this end, I modify popular strategies (e.g., Grim Trigger, Tit-for-Tat, etc.) to condition on the history observed in multiple strategic settings. I find that only for games with asymmetric payoffs subjects use these modified strategies in the presence of multiple contacts.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The second chapter is a theoretical work. In our model of large team innovation contest, teams develop an innovation using the skills or perspectives (tools) belonging to individual team members and the costly effort they provide.</p> <p>Prizes are awarded based on the values of the teams' innovations. Within a team, the team members posses different skills or perspectives (tools) which may be applied to innovation problems. For a given innovation problem and a given level of team effort, different combinations of tools within a team may generate different values for the team innovation. In this context, we examine the issues of individual team performance as a function of a team's own composition and the overall performance of the contest as a function of the compositions of the teams. We find that the question of whether increasing diversity leads to an increase in expected performance, for both an individual team and the overall contest, depends on the efficiency with which teams are able to effectively apply diverse sets of tools to innovation problems. Thus, our paper provides a channel -- other than a direct cost of diversity -- through which diversity can be beneficial or detrimental depending on how efficient teams are at utilizing diverse sets of team member tools.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The final chapter is another experimental study. We study an enviroment where individuals interact with each other in a prisoners' dilemma game repeatedly over time. However, the payoffs of the prisoners' dilemma game is decided stochastically using a transition rule. We vary the transition rule from alternation to random and study the change in subject behavior when the interaction is either symmetric or asymmetric. Our results show that in asymmetric environment, alternation can improve cooperation rates.</p> <p>With random transition rule, symmetric environment is more conducive to cooperation. We find that asymmetric environment with random transition rules performs the worst in terms of cooperation rates.</p>

<p>This research investigated the influence and relationship of two cognitive diversity frameworks on student design team knowledge integration capabilities and team contribution among seventy-five (75) student teams in Purdue’s Tech 120: Design Thinking in Technology course. </p> <p> </p> <p>When in cognitively diverse teams, students do not effectively integrate the knowledge available to them. Past research results in this area have further demonstrated that students tend to get worse at collaboration as the cognitive differences emerge and are exposed over time. The costs of this lack of collaboration and assimilation of knowledge assets are significant, such as diminished creativity, coordination, and other team performance measures. The purpose of this study then, was to provide student design teams with models or frameworks for visualizing and understanding the cognitive diversity available to them in their team and test the impact these frameworks have on various measures of team effectiveness: knowledge integration, psychological safety, and individual contribution. </p> <p> </p> <p>Cognitive diversity frameworks in question have been used successfully in various industry and organizational settings. The first, is the FourSight Thinking Profile™. This framework is used to understand one’s creative problem-solving preferences and how those preferences (high, neutral, and low) impact group dynamics. The second, is the AEM-Cube®. This framework draws on several theoretical foundations to assess an individua’s patterns of thinking and responses to change. Both the FourSight Thinking Profile™ and the AEM-Cube® have shown to help teams in industry settings collaborate (DeCusatis, 2008; Reynolds & Lewis, 2017), but their use in educational settings to solve the knowledge integration and team contribution problem in student teams is untested. </p> <p> </p> <p>The nearly 470 students in Purdue’s TECH 120 course were organized into teams ranging from 3-5 members by their instructors, thus creating a total of 129 teams. The researcher then divided the 129 teams into two fairly equal treatment groups. Each treatment group was given one of two cognitive diversity assessments (FourSight or AEM-Cube) to complete individually, time to review the results, and then asked to create a team charter or contract where students discussed cognitive strengths and weaknesses and how they planned to manage those assets and deficiencies as they worked on a 4-week long design thinking project. Only 75 teams completed all steps of the treatment (either FourSight or AEM-Cube) and thus were the focus of analysis. </p> <p> </p> <p>The major conclusions of this study are that while neither the FourSight or AEM-Cube frameworks for cognitive diversity were more effective in raising student knowledge integration capability or overall team contribution, these frameworks did not negatively impact the student experience; high levels of psychological safety were maintained among both more homogeneous teams and those that were more heterogeneous; and higher levels of knowledge integration capabilities and team contribution were achieved by students in varying degrees of diversity of creative problem-solving preferences and strategic agility. While the reason(s) for such high scores for knowledge integration capability, team member contribution, and psychological safety are unknown, the students reported that the processes by which these teams integrated their knowledge assets and solicited the contribution of their team members was both positive and effective. </p> <p> </p> <p>Further research into the effectiveness of the treatment, the influence of demographic diversities on team functions, and the experience of the 54 student teams that did not complete the treatment are needed to elucidate and understand the findings of this study. </p>

Purpose: Firm innovation is relevant in the fast paced business world. Recent years, research on board diversity has found that demographic and cognitive diversity have an impact on innovation, however this research is still inconclusive. To contribute to the research this thesis introduces informal hierarchy as a moderating variable to investigate if this can explain the previous contradictory findings.  Theoretical perspective: By using concepts from resource dependence theory, upper echelons theory, and behavioral theory, five hypotheses were formulated and tested.  Method: For board diversity Blau’s index was used, innovation was defined as an index of strategic change and informal hierarchy was measured as the dispersion of rank within the board, through the gini coefficient. 186 Swedish publicly listed limited liability firms were analyzed. Findings: The results provided evidence that neither demographic nor cognitive board diversity impacts innovation and informal hierarchy does not have a moderating role on that relationship. However, the findings suggest a direct relationship between informal hierarchy and innovation. Another finding suggests that board size and informal hierarchy separately has a negative impact on innovation, however when both board size and informal hierarchy is present there is a slightly positive effect on innovation.

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Democracy has been encountering an increasing number of critics. Whether it comes from a sympathy for autocrats, free-markets, or the more knowledgeable, this increasing democratic scepticism often takes an epistemic form. Democracy's critics argue that democratic procedures and institutions are unlikely to make good decisions or produce good outcomes in terms of justice or the common good, and should, therefore, be restricted if not completely rejected in favour of its more able alternatives. In the face of such scepticism, this thesis develops an epistemic theory of deliberative democracy. This theory has two principal aims. The first is to analyse and define the epistemic properties of deliberative democracy, and the second is to clarify the possible role epistemic values can play in a wider justification of democratic rule. In accordance with the first, the thesis analyses the ability of deliberative democratic institutions to make good or correct decisions in comparison to a broad range of prominent alternatives. These include traditional rivals such as autocracy and aristocracy, but also more modern and less considered alternatives such as free-markets, limited epistocracy and forms of technical calculation. Through these comparisons, it is argued that we have no good or clear epistemic reason to reject democracy. Deliberative democracy is found to be epistemically superior to many of its alternatives and epistemically equivalent to even its best competitors. The thesis, therefore, mounts a strong reply to democracy's epistemic sceptics. The analysis, however, also helps clarify which form of deliberative democracy is epistemically most valuable, pointing to the value systems approaches which give a prominent role to direct citizen deliberation. The epistemic theory of deliberative democracy also aims to clarify what role epistemic values can play in a wider justification of democratic rule. The thesis argues that deliberative democracy is epistemically superior to many of its rivals and no worse epistemically than even its best alternatives. This suggests that although epistemic values cannot mount a stand-alone defence of democracy, democrats would only be required to defend very weak non-epistemic values to produce a mixed justification. Far from being 'rule by the incompetent many' and therefore highly reliant on procedural values, the thesis will demonstrate that epistemic values can carry significant weight in an argument for democratic rule.