Parenting practices and discipline practices impact children’s lives in many ways, particularly children’s behaviors and outcomes. Positive parenting practices including authoritative parenting, non-violent discipline practices, and consistency are associated with positive psychological adjustment. Research demonstrates that negative parenting practices including authoritarian and permissive parenting, harsh discipline practices, and inconsistency are related to childhood maladjustment. The current study aimed to examine the relationships among parenting practices, discipline practices, consistency, and emerging adult psychological adjustment. Results indicated that positive parenting, positive discipline, and consistent practices are negatively correlated with emerging adult maladjustment. The current study found no differences between mothers and fathers for parenting practices, discipline practices, or consistency. Lastly, it was found that consistency acts as a partial mediator between parenting and discipline practices and psychological outcome and is a strong predictor of psychological adjustment.

This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of new technology development in emerging economies (EEs). I do this by studying the international patenting activities of EEs at the country level and firm level. In order to do this, I develop and analyze a panel database of patents filed with the United States Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO). I then examine differences in the nature of technologies that are being patented by emerging economies in comparison to developed economies (DEs). Through this dissertation, I develop a key construct that pertains to the nature of technologies that are patented. This construct is named novelty of technology knowledge and it pertains to the age of technological knowledge that organizations draw from and build upon while developing new innovations. The first research question I examine is what is the impact of global connectedness and institutional development in EEs on the age of technology knowledge that they build on. I build on insights from the institutional theory and argue that the absence of well-developed institutions presents constraints to the development and protection of novel technology innovations. On the other hand, global connectedness in the form of trade linkages provides opportunities for engaging in novel technology innovations. I hypothesize that a country's level of global connectedness and institutional development have a positive relation with the novelty of its technology knowledge. I use data on the international patenting activities of 48 countries with the USPTO over a period of 9 years. I use panel data estimation models to test the hypotheses. I find that global connectedness is positively related to the level of a country's international patenting. The second research question is what is the impact of the level of internationalization of EE firms on the age of technology knowledge that they build on. I first identify the benefits and costs associated with internationalization for EE firms as a result of the conditions in their home country. I then argue that with increasing internationalization, the counter forces of exploration and exploitation thrust firms' technology development from initially focusing on newer technology bases towards focusing on older technologies. I hypothesize the existence of a U-shaped relationship between the level of internationalization and the novelty of technology knowledge and test my hypotheses using a panel of bio-pharmaceutical firms from India. The findings from this dissertation make important contributions to the literature examining innovation and new technology development in the context of EEs. / Ph. D.

本文主要探討新股初次上市(櫃)前後期間的股價反應，並藉由觀察準上市(櫃)公司正式上市(櫃)前於興櫃市場交易的股價反應，來驗證興櫃市場的價發現機能。實證結果顯示，上市(櫃)申請日起至興櫃市場最後交易日止期間平均持有報酬47.01%、上市(櫃)首日異常報酬為58.37%、正式掛牌上市(櫃)第二交易日起至一年後的報酬表現，新上櫃股票報酬為14.01%普遍優於新上市的-1.23%。 興櫃市場的價格發現機能相關研究方面，興櫃市場的價格發現機能相關研究的結論為:IPO首日超額報酬在興櫃市場就已經能率先適當反應，興櫃市場是有價格發現機能的，IPO首日超額報酬存在，很有可能是因為承銷價低估。 / This research aims to investigate the performance of IPO stocks during their offering. Our sample consists of IPO announced from March 1, 2005 to February 28, 2010 drawn from the Taiwan Economic Journal. The empirical results show that (1) the return from the day applying to TWSE or OTC to the last trading day on emerging stock market is 47.01%. (2)The IPOs market adjusted return on the first trading day is 58.37%. (3) The performance of IPO stocks listed on OTC is better than stocks listed on TWSE after their offering. We also observed the stock price before listing to test price discovery function of emerging stock market. Our research show that stocks price on emerging stock market has appropriately reacted before listing. Emerging stock market has price discovery mechanism.

Yes / We adopt a resource dependence approach to explain the effect of state participation on the dissolution of international joint ventures (IJVs). While resource dependence theory has been used to explain the formation of IJVs, we propose an extension of the theory to explain their dissolution. We do so by highlighting the match between foreign firms’ resource needs (resource hierarchy) and the resource provision roles of state-controlled versus private local partners (resource profiles). We further argue that the effect of state participation on the dissolution of IJVs is moderated by foreign firms’ host country experience and IJV age. We test our hypotheses by using data on 623 IJVs in China. Our results show that state participation reduces the risk of IJV dissolution and that the strength of this effect differs depending on the type of state-controlled actor that is involved in an IJV. We also find that host country experience and IJV age moderate the effect of state participation on IJV dissolution. These findings enhance our understanding of IJV dissolution and contribute to the development of resource dependence theory.

The aim of this paper is to understand the roles knowledge and network play in the internationalization process of a small company in an emerging Kenyan market. The research is based on a qualitative approach using an embedded case study design where primary data was collected from Hydro Standard AB, Swedish Trade Council and two water companies in Kenya; Mombasa and Mavoko water companies. Semi-structured and in-depth interviews were used in the project. Findings from the study show that the internationalization process of Hydro Standard AB was successful and mainly driven by building of networks. The study also found out that tacit knowledge is crucial for a firm to develop itself in the Kenyan market which is very informal. Through tacit knowledge, a firm is able to gain knowledge and handle challenges concerning business culture and other unwritten rules found in the market. Further, building relationships with politicians or local branch managers can enhance a firm's performance.

The current study expands upon existing developmental research on marital attitude change by examining how attitudes toward marriage and long-term relationships may vary across emerging adulthood. Utilizing five waves of data from the Center on Young Adult Health and Development’s College Life Study, discrete-time survival analysis and latent basis growth curve analysis are employed to assess the change—and predictors of such change—in three measures of relationship attitudes (desire for marriage, desire for long-term relationships, and importance of marriage and long-term relationships) of over 900 college students. Results indicate positive change in all three measures of attitudes, with most emerging adults desiring and placing importance on marriage and long-term relationships from the very beginning of college. Predictors of attitude change included sex, race, experience of parental death, student status, educational aspirations, and total number of sex partners. Results suggest a need for more longitudinal research in this area.

Abstract   In 2005 the United Nations (UN) unanimously agreed setting up a framework for the responsibility to protect (R2P) populations facing mass death and large scale atrocities consisting of three pillars. This responsibility was primarily for states to protect their own population (pillar 1). However, the second pillar of R2P mentions the responsibility for outside actors to engage protecting populations if their home government fails to ensure this protection. This study is about the emergence of R2P and why it has failed to protect the population in the ongoing Syrian intra-state war. Applied to the case of the Syrian conflict is Amitav Acharya’s (2013) model of norm circulation which will serve as the analytical framework for this research. Furthermore, the implementation of R2P is hampered when a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decides to veto a resolution. This study suggests that when the UNSC is unable to act to protect populations at risk of mass death, a regional organization should have the authority to respond with necessary actions, even though that action would violate the sovereignty of the third state (see Williams et. al, 2012). As to date, the emerging norm of R2P still needs further diffusion in order to reach global acceptance. This research search to continue the development of the understanding of R2P and the emergence of global norms.   Keywords: R2P, Syria, emerging norms, the United Nations

This thesis examines the contributions that emerging churches make to their parent communities’ understanding of church. As a work in practical theology, it is focuses on the theology that is deeply embedded within the everyday language, symbols, and practices of ordinary individuals and communities. Thus, the research in this thesis centres on two concrete emerging communities and employs qualitative methods to examine and analyse the actual practices, values, and beliefs of community participants—treating the data generated through the investigation of these emerging churches as theological material. The thesis is structured in six chapters, beginning in chapter one with a preliminary sketch of the wider emerging church phenomenon, a brief account of the researcher’s own earlier experiences with emerging communities, and an initial overview of the research already conducted on emerging church. Following this introduction, the thesis outlines the research methodology in chapter two, taking an approach to practical theology that moves beyond the prevalent models of correlation and recognizes the embodied nature of theology. Identified in this thesis as ‘theology in the vernacular’ or ‘local theologies’, this approach provides a mechanism for bringing two emerging churches into an impactful encounter with their parent communities’ understanding of church. This encounter unfolds through the remaining four chapters of the thesis. Chapter three provides the ecclesial context for this research by outlining the history and development of emerging church, and locating the two emerging communities within that narrative. Chapters four and five offer an in-depth portrayal and analysis of these two communities by depicting their ecclesial contexts and historical development, their weekly patterns, their physical and online spaces, their worship gatherings, the profiles and personal narratives of their participants, and the core practices of these communities. The findings from these separate sites of research are brought together in chapter six, where five key ecclesiological features are drawn from the common patterns present in these emerging churches. These are: (1) the prevalence of an ecclesial eclecticism, (2) the carving out of a space for theological discussion and intellectual enquiry, (3) a resolute fondness for their local cities, (4) the vital nature of the weekly gathering, and (5) a robustly verbal orientation in the worship gatherings. By bringing these five ecclesiological features into an encounter with the parent tradition of these emerging churches in chapter six, the contribution that these emerging churches are making to their parent communities understanding of church is explored. This thesis argues that these emerging communities are offering their parent communities two alternative ways of understanding church. The first is an understanding of church as a space for ecclesial borrowing and blending—which impacts on the formulation of a community’s ecclesial identity. The second is an understanding of church as a space for discussion, enquiry, and doubt—which impacts on the nature of belonging in ecclesial communities.

Early complex societies developed in the Central Andes as a result of in situ processes of culture change. However, the developments commonly associated with complex societiespermanent village settlement, monumental architecture, intensive agriculture, and institutionalized stratificationwere neither uniformly nor simultaneously adopted. Rather, they appear to have been the result of different trajectories that initially were tied to changes among populations in certain circumscribed areasoften within individual valley systems. This dissertation explores the cultural and historical contexts of emerging complexity in one such areathe lower Jequetepeque Valley in northern Peru. This area encompasses several quebrada drainages and associated landforms along the lower, western flanks of the Andes, which were the focus of intensive Preceramic occupation (~11,000-4000 14C BP). The Preceramic Period correlates with the transition from the Terminal Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene, which involved changes in the local environment from cooler, wetter conditions to warmer, drier conditions that approximate the modern arid setting. Despite these deteriorating conditions, transitional late Early through Middle Preceramic (LE/M) populations (~9000-4500 14C BP) continued to occupy the project areawith some adjustments compared to their Paijanense predecessors (~11,000-9000 14C BP)based on survey and excavation data from 138 sites. These data consist of faunal remains, lithic tools and debris, hearth features, land snail middens, limited paleobotanical remains, and remnants of simple domestic structures and two possible rudimentary canals. Analyses of these data indicate that LE/M populations had intensified the localization of their settlement and subsistence patterns, and transformed their use and materialization of certain spaces to which they had become tethered. Taken collectively with evidence of Early through Middle Preceramic occupation in the nearby Zana and Chicama Valleys, the regional patterns observed among these three drainages indicate that a broad-spectrum diet, territoriality, ritualistic activities, and the separation of public and private spheres of activity preceded the adoption of intensive agriculture, socio-economic stratification, and the construction of large-scale monumental architecture, among other, more recognizable markers of cultural complexity. Further, these patterns indicate that Preceramic populations in this region actively negotiated changes in their local environment and social landscape by employing strategies of adaptational flexibility.

In this thesis I study two fields of empirical finance: market integration and economic forecasting. The first two chapters focus on studying regional integration of Mexican and U.S. equity markets. In the third chapter, I propose the use of the daily term structure of interest rates to forecast inflation. Each chapter is a free-standing essay that constitutes a contribution to the field of empirical finance and economic forecasting. In Chapter 1, I study the ability of multi-factor asset pricing models to explain the unconditional and conditional cross-section of expected returns in Mexico. Two sets of factors, local and foreign factors, are evaluated consistent with the hypotheses of segmentation and of integration of the international finance literature. Only one variable, the Mexican U.S. exchange rate, appears in the list of both foreign and local factors. Empirical evidence suggests that the foreign factors do a better job explaining the cross-section of returns in Mexico in both the unconditional and conditional versions of the model. This evidence provides some suggestive support for the hypothesis of integration of the Mexican stock exchange to the U.S. market. In Chapter 2, I study further the integration between Mexico and U.S. equity markets. Based on the result from chapter 1, I assume that the Fama and French factors are the mimicking portfolios of the underlying risk factors in both countries. Market integration implies the same prices of risk in both countries. I evaluate the performance of the asset pricing model under the hypothesis of segmentation (country dependent risk rewards) and integration over the 1990-2004 period. The results indicate a higher degree of integration at the end of the sample period. However, the degree of integration exhibits wide swings that are related to both local and global events. At the same time, the limitations that arise in empirical asset pricing methodologies with emerging market data are evident. The data set is short in length, has missing observations, and includes data from thinly traded securities. Finally, Chapter 3, coauthored with John Maheu and Alex Maynard, studies the ability of daily spreads at different maturities to forecast inflation. Many pricing models imply that nominal interest rates contain information on inflation expectations. This has lead to a large empirical literature that investigates the use of interest rates as predictors of future inflation. Most of these focus on the Fisher hypothesis in which the interest rate maturity matches the inflation horizon. In general, forecast improvements have been modest. Rather than use only monthly interest rates that match the maturity of inflation, this chapter advocates using the whole term structure of daily interest rates and their lagged values to forecast monthly inflation. Principle component methods are employed to combine information from interest rates across both the term structure and time series dimensions. Robust forecasting improvements are found as compared to the Fisher hypothesis and autoregressive benchmarks.