Browsing by Subject "Experiment"
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Item Behavioral Aspects of Supply Chain Integration: Macro and Micro Level Perspectives(2014-08-08) Verghese, Anto JohnSupply chain integration (SCI) among customers and suppliers is widely touted as a panacea that can resolve a variety of supply chain challenges and create new opportunities. Yet, there is little understanding about SCI. My first research question pertains to identifying the idiosyncratic behavioral nuances associated with SCI. I employ Grounded Theory (GT) methodology to analyze data obtained from interviews with individuals at seven companies. This work suggests that firms engaging in SCI exhibit a set of six behavioral patterns, which vary in degree. I then conjecture that SCI might exist at three different levels: coordination, collaboration, and internalization. Furthermore, very few studies have examined SCI?s antecedents from the supplier?s standpoint. I examine the role of customer leadership behavior which has hardly been the subject of empirical inquiry in this domain. I also empirically study the operant sequence that relates customer leadership behavior to SCI. I develop a theoretical framework and test it using data obtained from 207 firms via survey methodology. My results suggest that a customer?s transformational leadership behavior appears to positively influence trust which impacts affective commitment. Affective commitment is found to engender high levels of SCI. Also, the extant empirical research on SCI is examined from an organizational, and rather impersonal level, as if an invisible hand calls the shots. The role of individual in decision making in largely ignored. I synthesize the Behavioral Agency Model (BAM) and Behavioral Approach and Inhibition Model (BAIM), specify two variables (i.e., Variability in Pay and Socioemotional Wealth) as potential explanatory variables of executive decision making. The main findings reported in this study are based on 125 usable responses obtained by employing a 2x2 experimental design. I find evidence to suggest that only the main effect of variability in pay is positive and statistically significant. This suggests that individuals experiencing high levels of variability in pay are more likely to seek the highest level of SCI A post-hoc analysis, which involved splitting the sample by age (i.e., low & high) groups, yielded interesting findings as the results varied significantly between the two age groups.Item How fast is too fast? : examining the impact of speed-driven journalism on news production and audience reception(2014-08) Lee, Angela Min-Chia; Coleman, RenitaNew media technology is altering many aspects of mass communication processes. One of the most profound changes, especially in the newspaper industry, lies in the rise of speed-driven journalism, with growing emphasis on what is new or happening now. With more newspapers adopting this speed-driven news practice, the nature of its impact on journalists and audiences necessitates empirical examination, and this dissertation seeks to contribute to the professional and academic literature from a two-part, mixed method approach. Through interviews with journalists, study 1 sought to understand journalists' view of how speed-driven journalism affects their professional norms, routines and output, and how social media factors into the speed-driven online media landscape. The interviewees were also asked to discuss their view on how speed-driven journalism affects news audiences in terms of news credibility, news use, and paying intent. Based on findings from study 1, an experiment on news audiences was conducted in study 2 to assess the impact of speed-driven journalism on news credibility, future use, paying intent, readability and selective scanning. Key findings from both studies include: (1) Whereas most interviewees in study 1 believed that speed harms news credibility but boosts news use, the experiment in study 2 revealed that speed neither harms news credibility nor promotes future use. (2) Speed-driven journalism has no effect on selective scanning or audiences' paying intent. (3) In terms of readability, news stories presented in the live blog-like format are deemed harder to follow when compared to those presented in the traditional format. This dissertation advances the hierarchy of influence model by uncovering the effect of perceptual disconnect on speed-driven news practices at the social institutions level. That is, journalists are wrong at times in their assessment of how audiences engage with and are affected by new media technology, but nonetheless proceed to produce news and content based upon their mistaken judgment.Item Mood, food, traits, and restraint: an experimental investigation of negative affect, borderline personality, and disordered eating(2009-05-15) Ambwani, SumanEating disorders and borderline personality disorder involve several overlapping features, such as impulsivity, negative affectivity, and dissociation. However, few studies have specifically assessed how eating pathology and borderline personality may be related. The present study sought to evaluate this relationship by focusing on one particular area of overlap, negative affectivity. A pilot study assessed the psychometric properties of a dietary restraint measure among undergraduate women (N = 149). In the main study, undergraduate women (N = 307) completed a baseline mood assessment, then viewed a 39-minute sad film either with or without concurrent food presentation. Participants then completed a second mood assessment, and those who received food completed a third mood assessment following a 10-minute post-reflection delay. Results suggest that women reporting more borderline features exhibited greater negative affect across three different time points (baseline, post-movie/food, and post-reflection period), and were more reactive to the sad film. Food presentation appeared to have a small tempering effect on sadness, such that individuals who received food reported relatively less sadness after viewing the film when compared to those who did not receive food. However, actual quantity of food consumption was associated with improvements in mood only for women reporting higher levels of borderline features. Finally, highscorers on dietary restraint measures consumed greater quantities of food than their lowscoring counterparts. In sum, these data suggest that women with borderline personality features may be at elevated risk for developing problems with binge-eating, as consuming larger quantities of food appeared to have a tempering effect on their negative mood and specific feelings of sadness. Further, results are consistent with earlier findings in that reported efforts to restrain dietary intake were associated with greater food consumption in response to negative affect, and this relationship may need to be addressed in treating individuals with problematic eating behaviors.Item On the crushing of honeycomb under axial compression(2010-12) Wilbert, Adrien; Kyriakides, S.; Ravi-Chandar, KrishnaswamyThis thesis presents a comprehensive study of the compressive response of hexagonal honeycomb panels from the initial elastic regime to a fully crushed state. Expanded aluminum alloy honeycomb panels with a cell size of 0.375 in (9.53 mm), a relative density of 0.026, and a height of 0.625 in (15.9 mm) are laterally compressed quasi statically between rigid platens under displacement control. The cells buckle elastically and collapse at a higher stress due to inelastic action. Deformation then first localizes at mid-height and the cells crush by progressive formation of folds; associated with each fold family is a stress undulation. The response densifies when the whole panel height is consumed by folds. The buckling, collapse, and crushing events are simulated numerically using finite element models involving periodic domains of a single or several characteristic cells. The models idealize the microstructure as hexagonal, with double walls in one direction. The nonlinear behavior is initiated by elastic buckling while inelastic collapse that leads to the localization observed in the experiments occurs at a significantly higher load. The collapse stress is found to be mildly sensitive to various problem imperfections. For the particular honeycomb studied, the collapse stress is 67% higher than the buckling stress. It was also shown that all aspects of the compressive behavior can be reproduced numerically using periodic domains with a fine mesh capable of capturing the complexity of the folds. The calculated buckling stress is reduced when considering periodic square domains as the compatibility of the buckles between neighboring cells tends to make the structure more compliant. The mode consisting of three half waves is observed in every simulation but its amplitude is seen to be accented at the center of the domains. The calculated crushing response is shown to better resemble measured ones when a 4x4 cell domain is used, which is smoother and reproduces decays in the amplitude of load peaks. However, the average crushing stress can be captured with engineering accuracy even from a single cell domain.Item The "primed" third-person effect of media portrayals about African Americans(2016-05) Suk, Jiyoun; Lasorsa, Dominic L.; Chyi, Hsiang IrisUsing an online posttest-only control group experiment, this study explores how priming of different levels of media effects influences the third-person effect of media portrayals about African Americans. In the experiment, a total number of 200 participants were randomly assigned to read either an article about media’s power (strong media effects condition), an article about media’s lack of power (weak media effects condition) or nothing (control condition). The study reveals several important findings. First, reading an article about media’s strong effects influenced the perceptions of media effects on others. To be specific, people who were exposed to information about media’s strong effects perceived others of the same race (in-group) and others of different races (out-group) to be more influenced by media than people who did not read such article. Second, for those who read the article about media’s less powerful role, the article priming influence on the perceived media effects on the in-group others depended on one’s preexisting beliefs about media effects. In other words, as people held stronger beliefs about media power, the perceived media effects on the in-group others increased among those who read the weak media effects article. Third, as a behavioral consequence of perceived media effects, the intention to support media literacy education depended on perceived media effects on others, rather than self-other disparities. Reading the article about media’s weak effects also influenced the greater support for media literacy education. This study gives novel theoretical and practical contributions. First, beyond replicating the simple self-other disparities which the most previous third-person effect studies focused on, this study provides a new direction of linking the two theoretical frameworks – priming and the third-person effect-, thus deepening the understanding of psychological dimensions of person perceptions. In addition, the direct and immediate influence of messages on perceptions and behaviors suggests practical insights for persuasive tactics and media literacy.Item Self-Managing Teams, Traditional Teams and the Iron Cage: Re-Examining the Managerial Hegemony Thesis(2014-12-16) Ferguson, Andrew LeonThis study engages a debate among those who study teams in organizations. More specifically, it addresses the managerial hegemony thesis by examining self-managing teams and traditional teams. Two main questions are addressed: (1) Do these two types of teams produce different results for group members and their endorsement of an organizational system and (2) does treating key concepts in the debate as theoretical constructs that vary along a continuum rather than as empirical absolutes help further or resolve the debate regarding the managerial hegemony thesis? Predictions were based on two theoretical scenarios that were developed to explain how team structure makes group members experience more or less conflict and more or less resistance as well as how groups experience more or less group value consensus and managerial hegemony. To test these predictions, 188 participants were randomly assigned to two conditions. The experimental design manipulates at least one key characteristic of team structure: Operational autonomy. Teams performed the same task and group interactions were videotaped. After the experiment, participants completed a survey regarding their feelings about the task, each other, and their supervisors. Results demonstrate that team structure often had significant main effects. Two of three types of intra-group conflict were found to be significantly greater in traditional teams than self-managing teams. However, no significant difference in group value consensus between the two conditions was found. Consequently, differences in managerial hegemony between the two types of teams were not possible to determine.