Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 63-66. / by Sara Margaret Smith-Sands. / M.S.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1997. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100). / by Colleen K. Charles. / M.B.A.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 114-123). / Organizational life is rife with conflict between groups with different interests who pursue different goals. Integrative mechanisms to promote goal alignment do not always work, particularly when conflicts involve professional groups with strong commitments to their professional identities and perspectives. I draw on data from a 30-month comparative ethnographic field study of conflict between US Army commanders privileging their professional group's goal of fielding a mission-ready unit and mental health providers privileging their professional group's goal of providing rehabilitative mental healthcare to active-duty soldiers suffering from conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. All providers and commanders faced longstanding conflict related to their professional group differences in goals, identities, and perspectives, and all had access to a host of integrative mechanisms to overcome these differences. Yet, only those associated with two of the four combat brigades on the US Army post featured in this dissertation regularly handled these conflicts by co-constructing integrative solutions that accomplished both professional groups' goals and the organization's overarching goal to have both mentally healthy and mission-ready soldiers. I find that an organizational structure that enables what I call "anchored personalization" can help different professional groups overcome identity conflict and entrenchment in their home group's perspective to align their goals, without becoming coopted by the other group's perspective from personalized contact with the other group. Anchored personalization resulted from an organizational structure that provided a long-term personal connection with specific members of the other group, while anchoring group members in their home group identity from working surrounded by their fellow group members. Anchored personalization reduced longstanding identity conflict between groups by broadening and expanding each group's professional identity to incorporate elements of the other group's perspective, enabling what I call "anchored perspective-taking." Anchored perspective-taking practices led to the co-construction of integrative solutions to conflicts that aligned seemingly incompatible group goals to achieve the organization's superordinate goal. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of managing goal and identity conflict between professional groups in organizations and to our understanding of the dark side of personalization without anchoring. / by Julia Marie DiBenigno. / Ph. D.

Thesis (S.M. in Management Studies)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Page 50 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 49). / This thesis compares two microfinance business models, the non-profit Grameen Bank model and the commercial for-profit Compartamos Banco so as to identify industry best practices. Although there are many differences between these two models, the author concludes that the fundamental distinction between them is in their funding methods. Grameen Bank funds microloans primarily through local funds usually from savings deposits, while Compartamos Banco takes a funding approach that is similar to that of traditional commercial banks, including engaging in an IPO to fundraise. Based upon an analysis of respective business models, both institutions, in aiming to reduce poverty, believe that reaching scale and financial sustainability is important. Qualitative analysis and secondary research are used to gather the data that provides this analysis. The author concludes that in order for Grameen Bank to effectively reach its objectives, it should manage savings deposits to generate more microcredit rather than the large amount of interbank lending that is being generated as fixed deposit investments. Compartamos Banco's commercial model is effective in reaching aggressive financial growth. However, as it endeavors to scale for higher social impact, without industry-wide support (which identifies borrower's overall indebtedness), pure expansion could lead to disastrous consequences (Andhra Pradesh crisis). Risk can be better managed by smaller scale peer pressure in case there is no system to identify over-indebtedness. The analysis also highlights how microfinance institutions find it difficult to balance social impact and financial returns. / by Ryosun Jang. / S.M.in Management Studies

Thesis: S.M. in Management Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 40-41). / This thesis aims to create a better branding message for the OLIVITA Artisan by finding specific scents that are closely aligned with its marketing strategy for their future product line, to reassure the existing brand image and increase its competency in the market. In order to find the scents that are aligned with OLIVITA Artisan's existing brand image, an edited version of the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), a patented market research tool that has been proven successful in eliciting the conscious and more importantly the unconscious thoughts by exploring people's non-literal or metaphoric expressions, was applied for the "Mediterranean life" concept among a convenience sample. The transcriptions of the interviews were analyzed, relevant statements were extracted and the strongest statements were selected and logically grouped to be able to identify the key themes in consumer's mind by Voice of the Customer analysis. The themes were also used to create short stories. The results shaped the scent recommendations for the OLIVITA Artisan, including four pure, three conceptual scents that are closely aligned with its brand image. / by Merve Ergez. / S.M. in Management Studies

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Thesis. 1967. M.S. / MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN DEWEY LIBRARY. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-42). / My thesis examines how the lack of board-of-director independence affects the structure and disclosure of executive compensation. I find that European companies with more insiders on their boards grant their executives more incentive compensation, after controlling for the level and economic determinants of executive compensation. This effect is more pronounced in countries with less protection for outside shareholders. The companies with more insiders on their boards also disclose more transparent information about executive compensation. Overall, my evidence supports the contracting hypothesis, in which capital market investors understand potential detrimental effects of insiders and drive companies to mitigate these effects through greater incentive compensation and improved compensation disclosure. The evidence is inconsistent with the opportunism hypothesis, in which risk-averse insiders grant themselves more fixed pay and disclose less transparent information about their compensation. / by Volkan Muslu. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-59). / Donor grants and soft loans have been utilized by many microfinance institutions (MFIs) to support their operations. However, such grants and loans, already of limited size and availability, are becoming harder to access as the pool of global MFIs grows. Another option for MFIs is tapping international capital markets, international loan and security markets, but there are many barriers to this practice. This paper studies how MFIs and the poor who are seeking capital to foster their entrepreneurial spirits can overcome these barriers to access international capital markets and meet the growing micro finance demand. First, this paper establishes the degree of linkage between MFIs and international financial markets by reviewing the present funding condition of MFIs. It concludes that purely commercially based funding from capital markets is minimal except for some of the best managed MFIs. A huge gap exists between most other MFIs and international capital markets. Second, this palper studies the microfinance investment potential by analyzing the returns of one microfinance investment fund. It concludes that the profile of microfinance investment matches the needs of investors in capital markets. / (cont.) Investors in developed countries are always looking for investment products that mitigate their portfolio volatility. This paper verifies that microfinance has an attractive profile matching these needs, and offering stable return, as well as low correlation with stocks, bonds and macroeconomic factors. Capital market investors and microfinance have the potential to build win-win relationships. One of the remaining challenges of MFIs is generating required return commensurate with risks. Third, this paper proposes securitization in a microfinance global pool as a means to overcome the barriers to connecting MFIs and the poor to capital markets. In this securitization scheme, the global pool buys microcredits from MFIs, thereby 1) increasing return, 2) enabling many MFIs to obtain funds from capital markets by sharing fixed costs of funding, 3) reducing exchange rate and geographic concentration risks, and 4) creating secondary markets and liquidity. Some challenges to securitization still need to be overcome. Nevertheless, this paper demonstrates that; securitization in the microfinance global pool will be an effective means to bridge the gap between capital markets and MFIs and the poor. / by Daisuke Ueno. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-64). / by Wendy M. Elliott. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-115). / As the Internet continues to penetrate consumer households, online marketing is getting increasingly important for firms. By adapting to online strategies, firms are blessed (or doomed) with a plethora of new business models. The information flows created in the process poses both opportunities and challenges for marketers. On one hand, information flows captured online are usually easier to be stored and processed, thus empowering firms to be better informed about the consumers or the market itself. On the other hand, how to use the information flows to make the correct managerial decisions is still a challenging task for managers and academics alike. My dissertation studies the marketing implications of these information flows. Broad as the research question is, my dissertation focuses on specific market settings. I adopt both analytical and empirical methodologies to study information flows in these markets. Overall, this dissertation concludes that information flows can engender new market mechanisms, can provide valuable information of unobservable market forces, and can be created to improve social welfare. Essay 1: Innovation Incentives for Information Goods. Digital goods can be reproduced costlessly. / (cont.) Thus a price of zero would be economically-efficient for consumers. However, zero revenues would eliminate the economic incentives for creating such goods in the first place. We develop a novel mechanism which tries to solve this dilemma by decoupling the price of digital goods from the payments to innovators while maintaining budget balance and incentive compatibility. Specifically, by selling digital goods via large bundles the marginal price for consuming an additional good can be made zero for most consumers. Thus efficiency is enhanced. Meanwhile, we show how statistical sampling can be combined with tiered coupons to reveal the individual demands for each of the component goods in such a bundle. This makes it possible to provide accurate payments to creators which spurs further innovation. In our analysis of the proposed mechanism, we find that it can operate with an efficiency loss of less than 0.1. Essay 2: Edgeworth Cycles in Keyword Auctions. Search engines make a profit by auctioning off advertisement positions through keyword auctions. I examine the strategies taken by the advertisers. / (cont.) A game theoretical model suggests that the equilibrium bids should follow a cyclical pattern- "escalating" phases interconnected by "collapsing" phases - similar to a pattern of "Edgeworth Cycles" that was suggested by Edgeworth (1925) in a different context. I empirically test the validity of the theory. With an empirical framework based on maximum likelihood estimation of latent Markov state switching, I show that Edgeworth price cycles exist in this market. I further examine, on the individual bidder level, how strategic these bidders are. My results suggest that some bidders in this market adjust their bids according to Edgeworth predictions, while others not. Finally, I discuss the important implications of finding such cycles. Essay 3: The Lord of the Ratings. Third-party reviews play an important role in many contexts in which tangible attributes are insufficient to enable consumers to evaluate products or services. In this paper, I examine the impact of professional and amateur reviews on the box office performance of movies. I first show evidence to suggest that the generally accepted result of "professional critics as predictors of movie performance" may no longer be true. / (cont.) Then, with a simple diffusion model, I establish an econometrics framework to control for the interaction between the unobservable quality of movies and the word-of-mouth diffusion process, and thereby estimate the residual impact of online amateur reviews on demand. The results indicate the significant influence of the valence measure (ratings) of online reviews, but their volume measure (propensity to write reviews) is not significant once I control for quality. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that the variance measure (disagreement) of reviews does not play a significant role in the early weeks after a movie's opening. The estimated influence of the valence measure implies that a one-point increase in the valence can be associated with a 4-10% increase in box office revenues. / by Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang. / Ph.D.