Drawing on expectation confirmation research, we develop hypotheses regarding the effect of compensation on key customer outcomes following a major data breach and consequent service recovery effort. Data were collected in a longitudinal field study of Sony customers during their data breach in 2011. A total of 144 customers participated in the two-phase data collection that began when the breach was announced and concluded after reparations were made. Using polynomial modeling and response surface analysis, we demonstrate that a modified assimilation-contrast model explained perceptions of service quality and continuance intention and a generalized negativity model explained repurchase intention. The results of our work contribute to research on data breaches and service failure by demonstrating the impacts of compensation on customer outcomes. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

M.Phil. / Purpose: The purpose of the research was to evaluate the extent to which the constructs and dimensions identified by De Swardt (2005) are valid in describing and predicting the outcome of a variable pay plan. The following secondary research questions were therefore asked: What is the reliability of the eleven dimensions and three constructs? What are the statistical characteristics of the 11 dimensions and 3 constructs, and can they be used to benchmark new variable pay plans? How reliable are the 78 items as test criteria for the 11 dimensions and 3 constructs? Motivation for study: The primary rationale for this study was the unavailability of empirically tested models and the lack of validated variable pay instruments that evaluate the outcome of any variable pay scheme. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study followed a quantitative research methodology, with the primary objective of assessing outcome similarities through Structural Equation Modelling (EQS) factor analysis. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to the sample data to measure correlations. Findings: The findings of the research highlighted that there were minimal differences between De Swardt’s variable pay models. Differences were identified by analyzing the reliability statistics and factor analysis rules of assessing model fit. Following certain research limitations, the research questions were further refined for use in future studies. The research findings confirmed De Swardt’s (2005) theoretical model of predicting variable pay outcome. Research limitations: Although the study was conducted amongst a wider population group, individual organisation feedback from the selected participants was not balanced. A considerably larger portion of the feedback was obtained from the company with which the researcher was employed. Practical implications/Value-add: The outcome of this research confirms the commercial applicability of the instrument in identifying potential flaws in any variable pay scheme during the early stages of implementation. This will have a positive impact on an organisation’s bottom line. Additionally, quantifying the impact of variable pay plans will not only enhance HR’s credibility with regards to the broader organisational goals, but will encourage a well-structured, performance-linked variable pay system based on tested models.

Ph.D. (Human Resource Management) / Orientation: Employee retention remains an ongoing challenge for South African organisations. As a vehicle for aiding employee retention, reward and more specifically reward preferences, are not fully understood. Occupational culture and occupational group is suggested as a practical segmentation approach in researching employee preferences. Occupational culture relates to the shared values, meanings, and behaviours of occupational groups and impacts on employee preferences. In researching employee reward preferences from an occupational culture and occupational group perspective, organisations may be better positioned empirically to differentiate their reward strategies along occupational group lines. In this way reward strategies may better meet the needs of the organisation and employees and maximise the employment exchange relationship. Research purpose: The main purpose of the study was to research reward preferences from an occupational culture perspective with the view to shedding empirical light and practical evidence on the influence of occupational culture on the reward preferences of specific occupational groups in South African organisations. The primary objective of the research was to propose and evaluate a structural model of the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences of specific occupational groups in the South African context. The additional influence of Occupational Group, Race, and Gender on the reward preferences in a model that already contains occupational culture main effects was considered as per the secondary research objectives.

The Swedish police force is obligated to protect its citizens to maintain public order and to prevent and discover criminality in society. They work around the clock, every day throughout the year for the country’s security, freedom and democracy. But what happens when they themselves become victims of abuse and harassment, because of their job? The police are additionally protected by law when they are attacked in their uniform at work and this means an attack should be faced with punishment accordingly. The police force is a group in society who is more exposed to violence and who are trained how to deal with aggressive and threatening situations. Therefore, the tolerance level is expected to be much higher among the police and because of this, it can be more difficult for them to receive fair compensation when they have been attacked. This thesis aims to show the difficulties the police can face when declaiming compensation for work related attacks. The thesis also intends to investigate under what circumstances a policeman can get compensation.   The study will immerse in and analyse Swedish law together with case law, investigating if the courts lack consistency in their judgment whether or not the police should be entitled to compensation. In order to answer the study’s research questions, a legal dogmatic method has been used.

Cette thèse est le compte-rendu d’une expérimentation visant à explorer l’effet de la perception des aliments sur la prise alimentaire en réponse à l’exercice. Plus précisément, l’objectif était d’observer si l’opinion d’un produit est influencée par l’étiquetage utilisé pour le décrire comme étant riche ou faible en gras et si cette opinion influence l’appétit et la prise alimentaire immédiatement après une séance d’exercice ainsi que dans les 34 heures subséquentes. Dans un protocole en chassé-croisé, quatorze femmes inactives, mais en bonne santé ont été soumises aléatoirement à quatre séances expérimentales (Contrôle-Faible en gras; Contrôle-Riche en gras; Exercice-Faible en gras; Exercice-Riche en gras) où la dépense énergétique était fixée à 300kcal et obtenu lors d’une séance de marche ou course sur tapis roulant à 70% de la VO2peak des participantes. Aucune différence ne fut observée en ce qui a trait à l’apport énergétique au dîner et au cours des 34 heures qui ont suivies les conditions expérimentales, mais la réponse des participantes fut significativement influencée par leur niveau de stress. Les aliments présentés comme faibles en gras ont été jugés significativement plus santé, moins enclin à engendrer un gain de poids et plus appropriés dans un menu sain bien qu’une différence attribuable aux préconceptions des participantes a été observée entre les aliments offerts. Il s’agit de la première étude à mettre en lumière un effet de l’exercice sur la perception santé des aliments ce qui ouvre la porte à l’inclusion de ce facteur dans la recherche sur la compensation énergétique associée à l’exercice.

The work focuses on consumer's problems in medicine, pacients's compensation and malpractice in practices. First part of this diploma work content theoretical part which shows the law system of compensation, fault and non -- fault liability in the Czech Republic. Health compensation is being huge and very expencive these days specially in the states of western Europe and USA. That is why the part of the work compares the law rules and system between Czech Republic, Germany and France. Because New Zealand has very unusual non -- fault system and the burden of proof doesn't bear the pacient but the hospital the comparision was made also with this country. This issue is also very interesting from the economic point of view. The whole analyses agrees on hypothesis: Consumers'law protection in medicin is comparable with EU and satisfactory.

Teoretická část: Vymezení pojmu "Zaměstnanecké benefity" - definice, charakteristika, možností, rostoucí význam, mezikulturní rozdíly a vlivy Členění zaměstnaneckých benefitů a jejich typy - klasifikace, typy, zaměstnanecké benefity v ČR Trendy v zaměstnaneckých benefitech - tendence před, během a po nedávné finanční krizi Praktická část: Systém zaměstnaneckých benefitů ve velké mezinárodní společnosti - profil společnosti, popis systému benefitů, zaměstnanecká spokojenost s odměňováním, SWOT analýza, TOWS analýza

Le législateur cherche à favoriser l'indemnisation des victimes de certains types de dommages comme le démontre la mise en place de plus en plus régulière des fonds d'indemnisation. Cette multiplication n'est pourtant pas le gage d'un respect des droits des victimes, qui a priori favorisées, doivent parfois faire des sacrifices discutables. S'il nous faut admettre que les victimes sont aujourd'hui mieux indemnisées, les liens entre les fonds d'indemnisation et les droits des victimes apparaissent ambigus. Des questions demeurent. Les victimes sont-elles égales face aux fonds d'indemnisation? Le système instauré hors des prétoires ne vient-il pas porter atteinte à des droits jugés essentiels? Il s'agit alors de confronter aux mécanismes établis le respect des droits des victimes. Si, effectivement, les fonds d'indemnisation permettent aux victimes un accès à l'indemnisation rendu difficile par les règles du droit commun, il apparaît que l'indemnisation des victimes se révèle perfectible. À tous les stades de la procédure, de profondes inégalités sont mises en lumière entre les victimes relevant d'un fonds, entre ces dernières et les victimes du droit commun, mais également entre les fonds d'indemnisation et les victimes demanderesses. Ainsi, un fonds d'indemnisation unique, garantie d'un système plus égalitaire et plus cohérent, doit être proposé afin de faire des fonds d'indemnisation une véritable alternative pour les victimes. / Lawmakers tend to favor the victims of certain kind of damages as evidenced by the growing establishment of compensation funds. However, this multiplication doesn't guarantee respect for victims' rights. Although they seem to be favored at first sight, sometimes the victims have to make questionable sacrifices. Admittedly, victims are compensated better nowadays; however, the links between the compensation fund and the rights of victims appear equivocal. Some questions remain.Are victims treated equally before compensation funds? Does this system impair essential rights?An analysis of respect for the victims' rights by the compensation funds is required. Even though compensation funds offer to the victims an easier access to compensation, the mechanism turns outto be improvable. Deep inequalities are highlighted between victims of a same funds between those and the victims of the ordinary law, but also between the compensation funds and the plaintiff victims. Thus, a more egalitarian and more coherent system should be offered to make compensation funds a real alternative for the victims.

This study examined the role of firm performance, internationality, innovation intensity and firm size in determining CEO executive compensation in multinational enterprises. The framework for this study was established by reviewing literature relevant in executive compensation, agency theory, internationalization, innovation, contingency, and resource based theories. The sample data of 1,950 observations from 488 companies over a period of four years (2008-2011) were collected from ExecuComp database and from Forbes Global 2000 companies list published in 2011. A quantitative methodological approach using correlational research design was employed. The results indicated a positive relation between executive compensation paid to CEOs and firm performance measured in return on assets and return on equity, and size of the firm. Results did not indicate a strong relation between executive compensation paid to CEOs and internationalization and, investment in research and development in multinational corporations. Empirical analyses derived from the data set of this study failed to provide adequate evidence to support the expected moderating effect of firm size on executive compensation paid to CEOs and firm performance. A large part of executive compensation paid to CEO remains unexplained in part due to the need for a greater understanding of the effects of the contextual variables related to internationalization, innovation intensity, and understanding the impact differences from short term and long term executive compensation structures. This dissertation contributes to the literature on compensation, MNC analysis, and innovation.

This thesis designs new methods for Q tomography and Q-compensated prestack depth migration when the recorded seismic data suffer from strong attenuation. A motivation of this work is that the presence of gas clouds or mud channels in overburden structures leads to the distortion of amplitudes and phases in seismic waves propagating inside the earth. If the attenuation parameter Q is very strong, i.e., Q<30, ignoring the anelastic effects in imaging can lead to dimming of migration amplitudes and loss of resolution. This, in turn, adversely affects the ability to accurately predict reservoir properties below such layers. To mitigate this problem, I first develop an anelastic least-squares reverse time migration (Q-LSRTM) technique. I reformulate the conventional acoustic least-squares migration problem as a viscoacoustic linearized inversion problem. Using linearized viscoacoustic modeling and adjoint operators during the least-squares iterations, I show with numerical tests that Q-LSRTM can compensate for the amplitude loss and produce images with better balanced amplitudes than conventional migration. To estimate the background Q model that can be used for any Q-compensating migration algorithm, I then develop a wave-equation based optimization method that inverts for the subsurface Q distribution by minimizing a skeletonized misfit function ε. Here, ε is the sum of the squared differences between the observed and the predicted peak/centroid-frequency shifts of the early-arrivals. Through numerical tests on synthetic and field data, I show that noticeable improvements in the migration image quality can be obtained from Q models inverted using wave-equation Q tomography. A key feature of skeletonized inversion is that it is much less likely to get stuck in a local minimum than a standard waveform inversion method. Finally, I develop a preconditioning technique for least-squares migration using a directional Gabor-based preconditioning approach for isotropic, anisotropic or anelastic least-squares migration. During the least-squares iterations, I impose sparsity constraints on the inverted reflectivity model in the local Radon domain. The forward and the inverse mapping of the reflectivity to the local Radon domain is done through 3D Fourier-based discrete Radon transform operators. Using numerical tests on synthetic and 3D field data, I demonstrate that the proposed preconditioning approach can discriminate against artifacts in the image resulting from irregular or insufficient acquisition and can produce images with improved signal-to-noise ratio when compared with standard migration.