Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur restauranger påverkades av recensioner och ratings gjorda av konsumenter online. De valda recensionssidorna var Tripadvisor och Yelp, samt Facebook som ett socialt nätverk. Detta undersöktes genom en kvalitativ och kvantitativ studie, i form av två intervjuer och statistisk analys av data som vi samlades in från 89 restauranger i Stockholm.  Vi konstaterade att det inte fanns någon stark koppling mellan recensioner, ratings och ett företags nettoresultat. Trots detta var elektronisk word-of-mouth (eWOM) en viktig del av en restaurangs marknadsföring och recensioner var en stor del i beslutsprocessen om kunder valde att gå till restaurangen eller inte. För restauranger var det viktigt kunna bemöta och kompensera missnöjda kunder, även om det inte direkt syntes på deras resultat så kan det få konsekvensen att restaurangen fick dåligt rykte online. Vi kunde se vissa skillnader på synsättet mellan en restaurang med hög rating respektive låg rating på områden så som interaktivitet online. Synen på vilket av WOM och eWOM som är mest effektivt skiljde sig även mellan företagen. Överlag kunde stora skillnader dock inte påvisas.

Statistically significant reductions in scores from initial pretreatment testing to subsequent pretreatment testing in self-report measures are a widespread phenomenon (Arrindell, 2001). If valid, these reductions reflect improvement in psychological functioning absent any formal treatment (Arrindell, 2001). Many explanations for these reductions in scores have been offered (Arrindell, 2001) including assessment reactivity (Epstein et al., 2005), social desirability (Henderson, Byrne, & Duncan-Jones, 1981); and mechanical responding (Bromet, Dunn, Connell, Dew, & Schulberg, 1986; Durham et al., 2002). However, relatively few studies have examined this phenomenon empirically. Even fewer studies have examined pretreatment improvements in parent ratings. The present study sought to replicate the pre-treatment effect and to evaluate potential causes of these changes, specifically, repeated assessment, social desirability, and mechanical responding. Additionally, the study examined the relationship between maternal depression and parent ratings. Participants included 28 self-referred mothers and their children, though only 17 completed the study in its entirety. Results indicated pretreatment reductions in maternal ratings of child symptomatology and parenting stress. Repeated assessment was not supported as a cause of pretreatment improvements (score reductions). Social desirability, however, may have been a factor in the mothers’ ratings. Mechanical responding did not appear as a likely cause. Maternal symptoms of depression were associated with less change over the course of the study. Clinical implications, study limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Thesis advisor: Fabio Schiantarelli / Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Chemmanur / After the 2007 financial crisis, a big attention has been dedicated to credit ratings. Whether ratings are capable to provide the most precise and timely information is a question that has been tackled from different angles. The possibility to discipline credit ratings via a regulatory mechanism, the influence that ratings may play on corporate governance decisions and the information they deliver in comparison to other financial intermediaries are the main points that this dissertation aims to address. The first paper compares the behavior of standard or issuer-paid rating agencies, represented by Standard & Poors (S&P) to alternative or investor-paid rating agencies, represented by the Egan-Jones Ratings Company (EJR) after the Dodd- Frank Act regulation is approved. Results show that both S&P and EJR ratings are more conservative, stable and, on average, lower after the Dodd-Frank implementation. However, EJR ratings are higher for firms that may generate high revenue for the rater. Additionally, I find that, after the regulation, S&P cares more about its reputation. Exploiting a measure that captures the bond marketís ability to anticipate rating downgrades, I show that, after Dodd-Frank, bond market anticipation decreases for S&P but increases for EJR, suggesting that S&P ratings are timelier. Finally, I study how the bond market responds to rating changes and how firms perceive ratings in their decision to issue debt in the post-Dodd-Frank period. Results suggest that both S&P downgrades and upgrades generate a greater bond market re- sponse. On the contrary, only EJR upgrades have a magnified effect on bond market returns. The greater informativeness of S&P ratings after Dodd-Frank is confirmed by the meaningful impact of these ratings on firm debt issuance. The second paper (coauthored with Annamaria C. Menichini) studies the relationship between credit rating changes and CEO turnover beyond firm performance. Using an adverse selection model that explicitly incorporates rating change related turnover, our model predicts that a downgrade triggers turnover, more so the lower the managerial entrenchment, but that this relation is weaker when the report provided by the rating agency is more reliable. Our empirical results support these predictions. We show that downgrades explain forced turnover risk, with the new CEO chosen outside the firm that has received the negative credit rating change. In addition, we find that the relation between rating changes and management turnover is stronger when the degree of managerial entrenchment is low, for firms characterized by a high level of investment and for firms less exposed to rating fees. Finally, we show that this relation has weakened in the post-2007 crisis period, in coincidence with the increased reputational concerns of the rating agencies. The results are robust to endogeneity concerns. The third paper (coauthored with Thomas J. Chemmanur and Igor Karagodsky) focuses on equity analysts, issuer-paid and investor-paid ratings. Equity analysts' forecasts and ratings assigned by issuer-paid credit rating agencies such as Standard and Poorís (S&P) and by investor-paid rating agencies such as Egan and Jones (EJR) all involve information production about the same underlying set of firms, even though equity analysts focus on cash flows to equity and bond ratings focus on cash flows to bonds. Further, the two types of credit rating agencies differ in their incentives to produce and report accurate information signals. Given this setting, we empirically analyze the timeliness and accuracy of the information signals provided by each of the above three types of financial intermediary to their investor clienteles and the information flows between these intermediaries. We find that the information signals produced by EJR are the most timely (on average), and seem to anticipate the information signals produced by equity analysts as well as by S&P. We find that changes in leverage are associated with lower EJR ratings but higher equity analysts' recommendations; further, credit rating changes by EJR have the largest impact on firms' investment levels. We also document an investor attention effect (in the sense of Merton, 1987) among stock and bond market investors in the sense that changes in equity analyst recommendations have a higher impact than either EJR or S&P ratings changes on the excess returns on firm equity, while EJR rating changes have a higher impact on bond yield spreads than either S&P ratings changes or changes in equity analyst recommendations. Finally, we analyze differences in bond ratings assigned to a given firm by EJR and S&P, and find that these differences are positively related to the standard proxies for disagreement among stock market investors.

Personality is important to job performance; meta-analyses published over the years repeatedly showed that self-rated personality traits can significantly predict overall job performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Barrick, Mount, & Judge, 2001). Despite their significance, these same meta-analyses, generally showed personality only had a small effect on overall job performance. The exception was conscientiousness, which had a less than medium effect. However, there is also a growing body of evidence suggesting that other-ratings of personality can show higher concurrent validities than self-ratings. Meta-analytic results showed that personality can have a large effect on overall job performance, if the personality traits are rated by others (Connelly & Ones, 2010). Moreover, concurrent validities increased when utilising narrow measures of both personality (Judge, Rodell, Klinger, Simon, & Crawford, 2013) and job performance (Bartram, 2005). In this study, the author examined the suggestion from meta-analyses that observer-ratings, rather than self-ratings, provide greater explanatory power when predicting job performance. Further, the concurrent validities of using narrow personality traits (facets) as predictors of narrow measures of job performance were investigated. This study comprised 1,041 participants, of which 92% were employed in a UK police organisation. Employees provided self-ratings and identified two co-workers and a manager who could provide other-ratings of personality and job performance. Online questionnaires measured 71 personality facets of the 11+ Factor Model (Irwing & Booth, 2013) and Bartram's (2005) Great Eight factors of job performance. Arguably the most comprehensive measure of personality, the 11+ Factor Model is comprised of 11 factors and 74 facets. Items from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999) were utilised to create scales for each of the 74 personality facets. A planned missing data design was implemented to improve response rates (Graham, Taylor, Olchowski, & Cumsille, 2006). Measurement models were estimated first, followed by testing of the structural models (J. C. Anderson & Gerbing, 1988) to estimate the combined effects of personality facets on each of the job performance outcomes. Since cross-validation is a powerful approach for evaluating models (Millsap & Meredith, 2007), all models were cross-validated on two datasets. Fifty-two personality facets were identified and cross-validated. Some of these facets provided superior prediction over factors, when predicting narrow measures of job performance. The facets of integrity, leadership, harm avoidance and empathy explained much of the variance in the Great Eight job competencies. In some cases, self-ratings of personality provided superior prediction over other-ratings.

The associations of student ratings of instruction and courses (SRIC) with noninstructional variables (e.g., class size, expected grade) were examined in three instructional delivery groups--on-campus , off-campus face-to-face , and distance education courses. Factor analysis of SRIC from a 20-item form yielded two highly correlated factors , which differed somewhat across the groups ("Course " and "Instruction"; "Course/Instruction" and "Interaction Opportunities /Instructor Availability"; "Course/Instruction" and "Interaction Opportunities/Helpfulness"). The only educationally significant(r2 > .05) zero-order correlations were between SRIC total scores and expected grade, and were positive in all three groups(r2 = .07, .08, .06). In multiple regression analyses, 9%, 11 %, and 15% of the variance in SRIC for the three groups was explained by the entire set of noninstructional variables. Unique indices were consistent with the finding that expected grade was the only noninstructional variable with an educationally significant relationship with SRIC. In a separate study, SRIC and the instructor's social presence in host- and remote-site groups were investigated. Remote-site students rated course management lower, on average, than host-site students did, and educationally significant, positive relationships were found between social presence scores and the ratings on four SRIC categories. In addition , remote-site students at smaller sites tended to rate instruction and course satisfaction, as well as the instructor's social presence, higher than students at larger sites. In an additional investigation, students' ratings of teacher immediacy and reports of teacher-student interaction in distance education courses were analyzed. Host-site students tended to rate teacher immediacy higher than remote-site students did, and the negative association of site size with nonverbal teacher immediacy scores was educationally significant for host sites. Host-site students also tended to report more interaction with their instructors than remote-site students did, and mean reported interaction with the instructor was associated positively with site size and ratings of teacher immediacy. Based on the differing SRIC factorial structures for on-campus and off-campus students, the identification of distance-education-specific noninstructional variables, problems with obtaining SRIC from students in on-line courses, and evidence on the noninstructional-variable-related theory of teacher immediacy, suggestions were made for future research on student satisfaction and perceptions of teaching effectiveness in distance education.

The credit rating industry is a global industry with only three major actors, Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. The “big three” control the majority of the credit rating market and have powers, in the form of credit rating issuances, which they use to influence financial markets worldwide. Ever since their involvement in the fall of corporate giants in early 2000 and the financial crisis of 2008, the power and influence of the credit rating agencies, as well as questions regarding conflict of interest and transparency, have been a hot topic of debate.   The impact of credit ratings can be seen across multiple markets; however the focus of this study is on the stock market where every day investors can be affected. As Moody’s is one of the three largest CRAs in the world and is present worldwide, we apply their credit ratings when investigating the impact. Due to different characteristics of large and small markets, and since the US market is well studied; this study is conducted on the Swedish market. Thus, the aim of our study is to investigate the impact credit ratings from Moody’s have on the Swedish stock market and also, give a perspective on how the financial crisis of 2008 influences the potential impact.   We apply an event study method to isolate the events and measure the abnormal returns. To estimate the expected market return we use the market model on estimation periods of 60 to 120 days. The sample contains 71 individual credit rating changes from 17 firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and considers all uncontaminated credit rating changes issued by Moody’s on the Swedish market during the time period of 1990 to 2012.   Empirical evidence showed that the Swedish stock market is susceptible to Moody’s negative credit ratings but almost unaffected by the positive credit ratings. These findings are in line with previous research of Holthausen & Leftwich (1986) amongst others. Still, the effects discovered were not prolonged and no clear difference in impact was found after 2008.

Committee Chair: Dr. Shaun Wang Major Department: Risk Management and Insurance In this thesis I employ regime switching models on a unique dataset of bond downgrades to examine the information value of timely downgrades. I use ratings from a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) and a non-NRSRO as proxies for the arrival of public and private information. Regime switching models allow us to identify the time at which a discrete shift in the underlying stock return process takes place, estimate the distribution of returns in each regime and also observe the duration of each regime associated with the day of the downgrade. The first contribution is proposing an alternative way to perform an event study. First I define a regime switching model with two regimes: one of low and high volatility. The probabilistic nature of regime switching models allows us to identify the exact day on which stock returns switch to a high volatility regime. This is directly observed through the estimated daily conditional probability of being in one of the two regimes. In summary, I find that stocks switch from a low-volatility regime (1.92%) to a high-volatility regime (6.10%) on the day of the downgrade. The high-volatility regime lasts for about three days and it is mainly driven by downgrades of the smaller bond rating company (non-NRSRO). The second contribution is to propose a method to quantify stock return distress costs associated with downgrades. This measure is based on the capital asset pricing model, uses the parameters of the regime switching model and the estimated daily conditional probabilities of being in each regime. I find that distress costs on stock returns range from 9.49% to 12.91% for the 10 days prior to the day of the downgrade when assuming unity for the market price of risk. The magnitude and direction (sign) of my estimates are consistent with prior literature on the information value of bond ratings. The third contribution is to propose an extension to regime switching models to the bivariate case with a common shock. I show through a state-contingent model how shocks to the economy may cause a one time loss that affects a portfolio of stocks. I derive the frequency and severity implications of such exogenous shocks on regime switching models.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-132). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-132). Also available on the Internet.

Background: In serious health conditions, like childhood cancer, parent proxy reports are used for obtaining information. Previous studies have shown controversial results on agreement between children’s and parents’ ratings. In addition, there is lack of proxy studies in research including young children. The aim of the present thesis is (a) to examine how young children as self-raters and mothers as proxy-raters report over time on cancer related health issues, and (b) to explore the factors that may affect the agreement of each mother-child pair. Method: A longitudinal quantitative research design was chosen. Eight young children with cancer aged three to six years and their mothers were followed with questionnaires every six months for four time points. One measure on children’s feelings about their health situation and one measure on perceptions of their everyday functioning were completed by children and mothers at each time point. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results: Higher frequency of agreement was found in T4 (18 months after the diagnosis) for both measures. Between the two measures, higher frequency of agreement was found for the functioning measure. The mother’s educational level was found to be correlated with higher frequency of agreement (functioning measure). Conclusion: The time progress, the mother’s educational level, the number of siblings, the specific shared experience, like preschool, and the concrete and observable issues, like “functioning” rather than “feelings”, were found to be correlated with higher frequency of agreement between young children with cancer and their mothers. The convenient and small sample imposes the need for further research.