Climate change affects the health of people and the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published research that explains the danger of greenhouse gas emissions on humans, wildlife, and the planet. Initiatives and policies are enacted every day to counter the harm that is done to the environment. Many companies now publish environmental impact reports or Corporate Sustainability Reports (CSR) to promote industry transparency. Participating in environmental and social initiatives is also a competitive advantage for these Fortune 500 companies. Customers can support a company based on their environmental friendliness or social responsibility. Companies are then encouraged to promote social issues like workplace diversity, women in management, and community development; and environmental issues like habitat conservation, green building, and energy reduction. The general merchandising sector companies scored from highest to lowest in the following order: Walmart, Nordstrom, Sears Holdings, Macy’s, PPR, Target, Kohl’s, JC Penney, Dollar General, Belk, Neiman Marcus, Shopko Stores, Follett, Family Dollar, Dillards, Newegg.com, Michael’s Stores, and Fry’s Electronics. These companies represent the most successful companies based on their strategies to reduce their environmental impact. Extended Producer Responsibility, green building, and community initiatives are three categories that are imperative to discuss when addressing environmental and social reporting.

In this dissertation, I develop frameworks and models capturing the effects of marketing capital and R and D capital on firm growth and sustained membership in the Fortune 500 cohort. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and industrial organization theories, in the first essay, I develop hypotheses on the relationships among a firm's marketing capital, R and D capital, key firm-specific and industry-specific factors and survival as a Fortune 500 firm. I test these hypotheses using a proportional hazard model on a uniquely compiled large panel data set of manufacturing Fortune 500 firms over a 25-year period. The results show that while both marketing and R and D capitals have significant and direct positive associations with survival as a Fortune 500 firm, the moderating effects of industry growth on the relationships between marketing capital and survival as a Fortune 500 firm and between R and D capital and survival as a Fortune 500 firm is asymmetric. It is positive for marketing capital but negative for R and D capital. Thus, to retain firms‘ position on the Fortune 500 list, managers may want to consider investing more in marketing (R and D) when industry growth is high (low). In the second essay, I examine the effect of advertising capital and R and D capital, their complementarities, and their interactions with the environmental contingency factors of dynamism, munificence, and complexity on sales growth, profit growth, and market value growth. Using dynamic panel data analysis of 185 firms over an eight year period (2000-2007), I uncover a nuanced understanding of how advertising and R and D capital affect these performance measures. My results show that both R and D capital and advertising capital directly affect sales growth, but neither has a direct impact on profit growth. Furthermore, R and D capital has a direct impact on market value growth. I also find that while the interaction of advertising capital and R and D capital does not directly affect sales growth or market value growth, it has a positive direct impact on profit growth. Finally, I find that environmental contingencies matter. For instance, environmental dynamism negatively (positively) moderates the relationship between R and D (advertising) capital and sales growth.

A Study of factors Influencing Consumers¡¦ Trust in Fortune-Telling Websites Abstract Many people still worry the security problem of shopping on the Internet, although Internet shopping is getting more and more popular. Based on a survey in Asia Pacific region in 2001 by VISA, Taiwanese interviewees have the lowest trust in online shopping. It would seriously impede the development of electronic commerce. However, on the other hand, Fortune-Telling, a very popular activity in Chinese community for thousand of years, has been embedded in almost every hot portal website and become its milk cow. Consumers are willing to not only pay a fee for the service, but also disclose personal information such as birth date, etc. If we can understand more about how consumers¡¦ trust in Fortune Telling website are influenced, it would give some implications for a website to get more trust from its consumers. The purpose of this research is to find factors influencing consumers¡¦ trust in Fortune-Telling websites. This research adopts three major research methods: experiment, interview and grounded theory. Based on literature review and an interview to a professional fortune-teller, a primitive conceptual research framework is developed and an experimental fortune-telling web site is thus established. There are twenty subjects joining the experiment. Most of subjects are interviewed twice, before and after learning the fortune telling results. Then the grounded theory research procedure is applied to the conversations of interviews. Finally, a consumer trust model of the fortune-telling website is established. The model shows that Well-Known, Product, Profession& Integrity, and Content of Website are main factors influencing customers¡¦ trust. Key words: trust, electronic commerce, fortune-telling, grounded theory, trust model

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Geisteswissenschaftliche Fakultät--Graz--Karl-Franzens-Universität, 1999. / Notes bibliogr. Index.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2007.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., 1998. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-121).

Thesis (M.Sc.) -- Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1984. / Bibliography : leaves 109-111. Also available online.

x, 216 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation engages three facets of Greek philosophy: (1) the phenomenon of tyche (chance, fortune, happening, or luck) in Aristotle's Physics, Nicomachean Ethics , and Poetics ; (2) how tyche informs Socrates' own philosophical practice in the Platonic dialogues; and (3) how engaging tyche in these Greek texts challenges established interpretations of Greek thought in contemporary scholarship and discussion. I argue that the complex status of tych e in Aristotle's texts, when combined with its appearance in the Platonic dialogues and the framework of Greek myth and poetry ( poiesis ), underscores the seriousness with which the Greeks consider the role of chance in human life. I claim that Aristotle's and Plato's texts offer important counterpoints to subsequent Western philosophers who deny the importance and existence of chance in human affairs and in the universe, dichotomously privileging reason over fortune (Boethius), necessity over chance (Spinoza), certainty over contingency (Descartes), and character over luck (Kant). My investigation of tyche unfolds in relation to a host of important Greek words and ideas that are engaged and transformed in Western philosophical discourse: anank e (necessity), aitia (cause, or explanation), automaton, logos (speech), poietic possibility, and philosophy. First, a close reading of tyche in the Physics shows that its emergence in Book II challenges the "four causes" as they are traditionally understood to be the foundation of the cosmos for Aristotle. Attentiveness to the language of strangeness (that which is atopos ) and wonderment ( t o thauma ) that couches Aristotle's consideration of tyche unveils a dialogical character in Aristotle's text. I also show how tyche hinges together the Physics and the Nicomachean Ethics . Second, I argue that tyche illuminates the possibility of human good through an inquiry into human nature in the Ethics , exploring the tension that tych e is, paradoxically, a necessity as it is grounded in nature and yet relates to human beings in "being good" ( EN 1179a20), ultimately returning to a deeper understanding of the relation between physis and tyche . Third, I argue that the Poetics also sustains an engagement with tyche insofar as poi esis speaks to human possibility, turning to Heidegger and Kristeva to see how this is so. / Adviser: Peter Warnek

Estudo dos temas da fortuna e da superstição no Tratado teológico-político de Espinosa. Na primeira parte, estudo o sentido destes temas no prefácio, texto cuja forma é retórica. Na segunda parte, estudo como os mesmos temas reaparecem em capítulos do Tratado teológico-político, textos que têm forma demonstrativa. / Study of the themes of fortune and superstition on the Spinoza\'s Theological- political treatise. In the first part, I study the meaning of these themes in preface whose form is rethoric. In the second part, i study how the same themes are treated in chapters of the Theological-political treatise, texts whose form is demonstrative.

This content analysis examined presence of 47 public relations community support variables on a systematic random sample of 166 Fortune 500 corporate web pages. Three hypotheses and two research questions guided the analysis. Hypotheses predicted (1) the increased implementation of community support gateway links on corporate web sites since 2000, (2) that corporate industry type influences the Web presence of community support, and (3) that corporate rank influences the Web presence of community support. Research questions analyzed one-way and two-way tool presence as well as community support presence at local, national, and global community levels. Results supported corporate rank as an indicator of community support on corporate web pages; however, results did not support corporate industry as an indicator of community support or the increase of community support presence on corporate web sites. Analysis includes discussion regarding reasons for lack of community support and two-way communication tool presence on corporate web sites. The thesis concludes with recommendations for implementation of two-way public relations community support tools in order to facilitate mutual understanding, trust, and dialogue between a corporation and its local, national, and global communities. / Master of Arts