Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 134 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Validity generalization work over the past 25 years has called into question the veracity of the assumption that validity is situationally specific. Recent theoretical and methodological work has suggested that validity coefficients may be transportable even if true validity is not a constant. Most transportability work is based on the assumption that the distribution of rho ( ) is normal, yet, no empirical evidence exists to support this assumption. The present study used a competing model approach in which a new procedure for assessing transportability was compared with two more commonly used methods. Empirical Bayes estimation (Brannick, 2001; Brannick & Hall, 2003) was evaluated alongside both the Schmidt-Hunter multiplicative model (Hunter & Schmidt, 1990) and a corrected Hedges-Vevea (see Hall & Brannick, 2002; Hedges & Vevea, 1998) model. The purpose of the present study was two-fold. The first part of the study compared the accuracy of estimates of the mean, standard deviation, and the lower bound of 90 and 99 percent credibility intervals computed from the three different methods across 32 simulated conditions. The mean, variance, and shape of the distribution varied across the simulated conditions. The second part of the study involved comparing results of analyses of the three methods based on previously published validity coefficients. The second part of the study was used to show whether choice of method for determining whether transportability is warranted matters in practice. Results of the simulation analyses suggest that the Schmidt-Hunter method is superior to the other methods even when the distribution of true validity parameters violates the assumption of normality. Results of analyses conducted on real data show trends consistent with those evident in the analyses of the simulated data. Conclusions regarding transportability, however, did not change as a function of method used for any of the real data sets. Limitations of the present study as well as recommendations for practice and future research are provided. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Purpose: To explore what are the consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising in a social media context. Research questions: What are the consumers’ attitudes towards entertainment, credibility, irritation and informativeness in mobile advertising? What are the consumers’ attitudes towards permission-based advertising and incentivebased advertising in mobile advertising in social media context? Theoretical framework: This study was based on theories that helped to understand what are the consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising, what are the attitudes towards the dimensions of mobile advertising and the types of mobile advertising. A model was presented in order to have a clear picture of the existing theories in this field. Methodology: The authors used a qualitative research and the method chosen for data collection was semi-structured interviews and a case study, Snapchat (mobile application). Conclusions: After this process the authors could conclude that consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising in social media were negative. The strongest feeling among consumers that would influence their attitudes was irritation. The consumers’ negative attitudes can be related to control. When giving them control their attitudes can be positive. Rewards can positively influence consumers’ attitudes as well. According to the findings in this study high rewards should be given to consumers in high engagement situations.

Abstract This is an exploratory study that poses the questions and discussion regarding live and recorded sales presentations via television. With its rich history, it appears that live television has more types of appeal that will get the shopper buying products. However, the recorded and edited presentation played back on television has had its share to grab the shopper's attention. Research questions are presented to determine which broadcasting method is stronger by examining factors related to home shopping such as credibility, authenticity, involvement, urgency, informativeness, entertaining value, sense of real time, spontaneity and interactivity. Additional questions will look at the overall presentation, the product itself, and what the potential future of home shopping may be based upon this study. The main findings show there is a significant difference in all factors between live and recorded; however, some factors are stronger than others between live and recorded. These factors could indicate where home shopping may want to concentrate its efforts to remain a viable entity in electronic retail.

The growth of YouTube has resulted in the industrialization of a platform that redefines mainstream success. Success measures such as endorsements and viewership are serving as motivational factors for YouTubers. YouTubers and brands want more views, but are those motivations effecting perception? While much research has focused on the effects that YouTube has on the brand, this study focuses on the effects that the brand has on the YouTuber. It also determines whether viewership affects YouTuber perception and whether it‟s a success measure worth using. Using the constructs of the source credibility theory, this study assessed the main effect of brand endorsement and viewership on perceived expertise and trustworthiness of YouTubers. After conducting an online experiment, findings suggest that non-brand endorsed YouTubers possess higher-rated expertise and trustworthiness. While viewership did not make a difference in perceived expertise, it did result in higher-rated trustworthiness when a YouTuber possesses lower viewership.

“Who says what to whom and of what consequence?” is a fundamentally communicative question. This dissertation provides answers to this question by examining receivers’ expectations about, perceptions of, and responses to, requests for compliance. This dissertation asks: What impact does source credibility have on responses to and evaluations of request for compliance? Do people who receive requests for compliance have different language expectations for high and low credibility sources? If receivers perceive self-benefit from complying with a request, will that affect their responses to or evaluations of the message or message source? To answer these questions, this dissertation responds to the call for studies to extend language expectancy theory by focusing on interpersonal influence attempts; the results herein provide researchers with the opportunity to offer refined specifications when making predictions about social influence outcomes. In addition, this dissertation is novel in that it examines the intersection between language expectancy theory and predicted outcome value theory. / text

Concealing information, one of the many forms of deception, is a pervasive phenomenon as it is present in virtually every facet of interpersonal communication. In some cases, information concealment can have profound implications (e.g., insider threats in organizations, security screening at the border, and criminal interviews). New technologies are under development to aid in identifying concealed information, however, additional research is needed in three key areas to increase the feasibility of using these technologies in real-world credibility assessment contexts. First, research is needed to investigate the accuracy of new credibility assessment technologies relative to existing deception-detection systems. Demonstrating that new technologies meet or exceed detection accuracies of existing systems (e.g., the polygraph) is critical. Second, research is needed to determine if a targetless Concealed Information Test (CIT) is feasible. Existing CIT research supports the presence of main effect differences between persons concealing information and the control group. These behaviors may permit the detection of concealed information without the use of customized sets of stimuli. Eliminating the need to create customized sets of stimuli for each examinee would drastically increase the ease with which an automated system can be used to conduct a CIT. Finally, research is needed to illuminate various elements of the human-computer interaction that occurs during automated credibility assessments. This is a new domain of human-computer interaction as system users in this context are not instigating the interaction, and in many cases, they may be seeking to limit the effectiveness of the system. Before novel systems designed to conduct credibility assessments can be adopted, further research is needed to illuminate how users perceive, respond to, and strategically manage their behaviors when interacting with systems of this nature. This dissertation contains the results of a research program designed to address each of these areas. First, an experiment was designed to investigate the accuracy rates of two promising noncontact measures of concealed information (oculometrics and vocalics) relative to electrodermal activity (EDA). Second, an experiment was designed to evaluate the feasibility of using a targetless CIT to elicit main effect differences between concealers and the control group to identify concealed information. And third, a thorough analysis of examinees' general perceptions, self-reported stress and arousal, perceived effort and performance, and use of countermeasures within the context of an automated credibility assessment interview was conducted. This research effort has yielded the following findings. First, eye tracking and vocalics can be used to identify significant differences in the behaviors and physiology of examinees concealing information, however, the accuracy with which truth tellers and information concealers can be classified remains impractical for an applied setting. Second, there are main effect differences between persons concealing information and telling the truth, however, the use of countermeasures may limit the accuracy with which concealers can be identified. Finally, the presence of concealed information and the use of crime-relevant questions alter how examinees perceive and react to a system designed to identify concealed information. The limitations of this research, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.

One effective way for organizations to capture expert knowledge and experience is to encapsulate it within an expert system (ES) and make that system available to others. While ES users have access to the system's knowledge, they shoulder the difficult task of appropriately incorporating the ES recommendations into the decision-making process.One proposed application of an ES is in the realm of deception detection. Humans are inherently poor at recognizing deception when it occurs and their confidence in their judgments is poorly calibrated to their performance. An ES has the potential to significantly improve deception detection; however, joining an ES and a human decision maker creates many important questions that must be addressed before such a system will be useful in a field environment. These questions concern changes in decision outcomes, decision processes, and the decision maker that result from ES use.To examine these questions, a prototype system was created that implements new and unobtrusive methods of deception detection. Kinesic analysis examines the body movement of a potential deceiver and linguistic analysis reviews the structure of utterances from a potential deceiver. This prototype, complete with explanations, was utilized in two experiments that examined the effects of access to the prototype, accuracy level of the prototype, user training in deception detection, and novice or professional lie-catcher status of the users.Use of the prototype system was found to significantly improve professional and novice accuracy rates and confidence alignment. Training was found to have no effect on novice accuracy rates. Accuracy level of the prototype significantly elevated accuracy rates and confidence alignment among novices; however, this improvement was imperceptible to the novices. Novices using the prototype performed on a level equivalent to professionals using the prototype. Neither professional nor novice users of the prototype exceeded the performance of the prototype system alone. Implications of these findings include emphasizing the development of computer-based tools to detect deception and defining a new role for human users of such tools.

Model credibility index is defined to be a sample size under which the power of rejection equals 0.5. It applies goodness-of-fit testing thinking and uses a one-number summary statistic as an assessment tool in a false model world. The estimation of the model credibility index involves a bootstrap resampling technique. To assess the consistency of the estimator of model credibility index, we instead study the variance of the power achieved at a fixed sample size. An improved subsampling method is proposed to obtain an unbiased estimator of the variance of power. We present two examples to interpret the mechanics of building model credibility index and estimate its error in model selection. One example is two-way independent model by Pearson Chi-square test, and another example is multi-dimensional logistic regression model using likelihood ratio test.

Corporations follow different strategies to leverage their existing brands. One of these is brand extension, which is the extension of an existing brand to a new product category. In this strategy, corporations have two alternatives, one of which is the family brand extension. Here, the new product is introduced under the corporate name along with the extension’s category name (e.g. Sony mobile, Nestlé mineral water, and Gillette shampoo). The second alternative is the brand endorsement. In this alternative, the extension is given a new name. Moreover, the corporation’s name is presented as the endorser in the extension brand structure and communications (e.g. Scandic by Hiliton, Courtyard by Marriott). However, the focus will be on the extension brand name, rather than the corporate name. The endorser’s main role is to provide credibility and substance to the endorsed brand, while maintaining the endorsed brand’s freedom to establish its unique associations and personality. It is well-known that, in the family brand extension, the perceived fit between the parent brand and the extension product category moderates consumers’ judgement of the extension (i.e. the new product which is introduced under the parent name). However, widely-diversified corporations (e.g. Nestlé, Unilever) often endorse their products to leverage their corporate credibility. The proliferation of using a corporate name to endorse products in the case of corporations with diversified product portfolios puts the importance of the fit on the corporate endorser, and the endorsed product brand under scrutiny. Specifically, it raises the following questions: to what extent is the perceived fit between the corporate brand endorser and the endorsed brand really important in an endorsement context? What is the relative importance of fit and endorser credibility in an endorsement context, and why? In the current research, it is proposed that both corporate credibility and fit affect consumers’ judgement in an endorsement context. However, the endorser credibility is more important. It is also proposed that corporate credibility is more important than fit because it is more diagnostic, which makes the endorser credibility more recallable for the consumer. The current research results have shown that, when consumers can easily recall information related to the endorser credibility and the fit between the endorser and the endorsed brand, both endorser credibility and fit has an effect on the endorsed brand. However, endorser credibility has a stronger effect on the endorsed brand judgement than fit. Moreover, the results have shown that fit moderates the effect of corporate credibility only when the endorser credibility is high. When consumers have difficulty recalling information, fit does not moderate the effect of the endorser credibility on the endorsed brand. The current research findings have been obtained by conducting two experiments. In Experiment One, corporate credibility and perceived fit were manipulated in an endorsement context. Consumer judgement of the endorsed brand was measured by the perceived quality and purchase intention. Experiment Two was conducted to study the impact of the information accessibility on the effect of the endorser credibility and fit on the endorsed brand judgement. Endorser credibility, fit and information accessibility were manipulated in an endorsement context. Perceived quality and purchase intention of the endorsed brand were also used to measure the consumers’ judgement of the endorsed brand.

Finansų rinkos yra svarbi ekonomikos dalis, atliekanti vieną svarbiausių ekonominių funkcijų - perskirsto laikinai laisvas lėšas tarp ūkio subjektų ir kartu įtraukia į investavimo procesą skolininkus. Suteikus paskolą, atsiranda rizika, kad skolininkas neįvykdys savo įsipareigojimų. Vienas iš būdų šiai rizikai valdyti yra skolininko patikimumo vertinimas. Paskolų teikimas yra svarbi banko veikla, nes didžiausią įtaką bankų pelningumui per pastaruosius metus turėjo didėjančios paskolų portfelio pajamos: per 2005 m. paskolų suma mln Lt padidėjo 40,93% daugiau lyginant su praėjusiais metais, o per 2006 m. - pasiekė 96,17% lygį nei ankstesniais metais. Didėjančios paskolų portfelio pajamos lėmė 382,3 mln. Lt, arba 48,6 proc., didesnes nei 2005 metais grynąsias palūkanų pajamas, palyginti su 2005 metais, bankai gavo 100,3 mln. Lt, arba 25 proc., daugiau grynųjų paslaugų ir komisinių pajamų, todėl kiekvienam bankui svarbu tinkamai valdyti kredito riziką, kad išvengtų nuostolių dėl blogų paskolų suteikimo. Tai paskatino giliau panagrinėti esamą situaciją, kuri parodo, kad Lietuvos bankai susiduria su kredito rizika ir, kad nuostoliai susidarę dėl blogų paskolų gali skaudžiai atsiliepti skolintojams. Vienas iš kredito rizikos mažinimo būdų yra tinkamas skolininko patikimumo vertinimas, kuris banke turi didelės įtakos banko užimamai rinkos daliai, bei jo pelningumui. Atlikus mokslinės literatūros analizę, buvo pastebėta, kad skolininko patikimumo vertinimo modelių kaip kredito rizikos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / After the bank gives a loan, the risk of not pursuing the liabilities comes, so it needs to be reduced. One way to manage this risk is debtor credibility evaluation. Research object: debtor credibility evaluation. The objektive of this paper is to analyze debtor credibility evaluation and evaluate enterprise “Fausta” evaluation using debtor credibility evaluation models. Debtor credibility evaluation model is made from debtor financial rates and their intake methods. The most analyzed intake methods in science literature are linear discriminant analysis, logit, probit methods; the least used: neural networks, decision trees. In this work debtor credibility evaluation models are analysed, they are classified according to two criterions: qualitative models (descriptive) and quantitative models (estimated). Both classification models can betters evaluation debtor credibility. The following models are used to evaluate enterprise “Fausta” credibility: qualitative models: 6C ir SAPACTRPS and quantitative analysis models: Tafler (1974), Springate (1978), Lis (1999), Shumway (2001), Altman Z modelis (1968), Ohlson (1980), Fulmer (1984). Research of enterprise “Fausta” shows, that bank can give a loan. Qualitative analysis models give qualitative information about debtor’s experience, skills, and purpose of the loan. Quantitative models give more information about financial rates. Biggest disandvantage of qualitative analysis models is human factor. Disandvantage of quantitative... [to full text]