UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item RECLAIMING ANTAKYA: POST-DISASTER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOR RESILIENT FUTURES(2024) Demircan, Zeynep Dila; Filler, Kenneth; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As the global population continues to grow and settlements expand, an increasing number of communities are at risk of natural and man-made disasters. While the immediate focus in disaster management is to preserve lives and safeguard property through emergency response, the subsequent phases of recovery and preparedness present challenges in terms of planning and management. The earthquake that struck Turkey in February 2023 inflicted significant damage on the physical, social, and economic infrastructure of the affected region. Among the hardest-hit areas is the city of Antakya, which suffered severe destruction, thereby complicating and prolonging the recovery efforts. This thesis is dedicated to addressing the challenges associated with disaster management and recovery processes in Antakya. It emphasizes the importance of empowering the community to reclaim their surroundings, foster a sense of belonging, preserve culture, and revitalize life in the aftermath of the disaster. This approach aims to foster sustainable solutions and build resilience in the community.Item Transferring social capital from individual to team: An examination of moderators and relationships to innovative performance(2012) Edinger, Suzanne; Tesluk, Paul E; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation, I explore the relationships between individual social capital, team social capital, and team innovative performance. The association between personal and group social capital is underexplored (Burt, 2000; Kilduff & Krackhardt, 2008), and is important to investigate so that we may improve our knowledge of how social capital transfers from individuals to their teams in ways that promote team innovation. I hope to contribute to the literature on social capital in teams in three important ways. Within team-based settings with high innovation requirements, I first propose that the structural bridging social capital (i.e., ties outside the team) of team members is an important predictor of the team's structural bridging social capital. Second, transferring social capital from the individual to team level, I suggest that a team member's sharing of his/her bridging social capital resources is influenced by relational, cognitive, and task components, including group identification, dyadic trust, team member exchange, and shared vision. Finally, I investigate the role of transactive memory systems and bonding social capital (i.e., ties inside the team) in explaining the relationship between team structural bridging social capital and team innovative performance. Study participants were 263 members of 38 project teams in the merchandising displays division of a large paperboard and packaging manufacturer in the United States. I find that individual bridging social capital predicts team structural bridging social capital. Additionally, psychological identification with team, psychological identification with organization, team member exchange, and shared vision moderate the relationship between individual and team structural social capital. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for social capital and team innovative performance theory and practice.Item Mexican American First-Generation Students' Perceptions of Siblings and Additional Factors Influencing their College Choice Process(2012) Elias McAllister, Dora; Fries-Britt, Sharon L.; Cabrera, Alberto F.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to understand the factors influencing the college choice process of Mexican American first-generation students who had an older sibling with college experience. While a considerable amount of research exists on factors influencing the college choice process of first-generation college students, and a few studies report on the process for Mexican American first-generation college students specifically, far less attention has been devoted to the college choice process of first-generation college students who come from families where an older sibling has already experienced the college choice process. The major research question and sub-question guiding this study were: How do Mexican American first-generation students who have an older sibling with college experience describe their college choice process? What are some of the familial, social, and academic factors that Mexican American students identify as influences on their college choice process? This study was based on a qualitative, descriptive, multiple case study design. The cases were 17 Mexican American first-generation students attending Arizona State University (ASU). Participants completed a questionnaire and participated in two individual interviews. Participants were first-time freshmen, Arizona residents, spring 2010 high school graduates, and enrolled at ASU in fall 2010 with continued enrollment in spring 2011. In addition, five participants had an older sibling with a bachelor's degree; three participants had an older sibling with an associate degree; eight participants had an older sibling enrolled at a university; and one participant had an older sibling who had completed some coursework at ASU but left before obtaining a degree. The most important conclusions from this study were: (1) Parents and older siblings have the greatest influence on the predisposition stage; (2) during the search stage, students sought information and assistance from teachers, followed by older siblings and counselors; (3) the institutions that students considered for application and attendance were heavily influenced by older siblings; (4) an institution's distance from home had a great influence on where students applied and enrolled; (5) institutional type had a great influence on where students applied; and (6) cost and financial aid had a great impact on students' choice of college.Item Learning How to Navigate U.S. Society with Young Children: Experiences of Immigrant Mothers Utilizing Early Childhood Care and Education(2011) Vesely, Colleen Kirkwood; Roy, Kevin M; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Nearly one in four children in the United States are children of immigrants (Fortuny, Hernandez, & Chaudry, 2010), and these children are the fastest growing segment of children in the country (U.S. Census, 2000 as cited in Matthews & Ewen, 2006b). Given this growth, grounded in Berry's (1997) acculturation framework and ecocultural theory (Weisner, 1997) , this study investigated the lived experiences of immigrant mothers with young children as these mothers adjusted to being parents in the U.S. An ethnographic approach was utilized to explore the experiences of 41 immigrant mothers living in Washington, DC and Virginia who were engaged with the ECCE system. Consequently, in-depth interviews as well as observations were conducted with immigrant mothers living in northern Virginia and Washington, DC, hailing from both Latin America (n= 22) and Africa (n=19). Data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach in which three waves of coding were conducted: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The findings from this study indicate that mothers' immigration stories, including, their reasons for coming to a new host society, their journey and finally, adjustment to life in the new country, shaped their expectations of parenting in the U.S. Mothers' in this study negotiated parenting ideas and practices from the U.S. and their home countries to create a new social framework for parenting in the U.S. that was distinct from parenting in their COOs and the U.S. Finally, a process model emerged from the data reflecting these immigrant mothers' navigation of the ECCE system. It illustrated that mothers drew upon a variety of social, organizational, and geographic connections to find ECCE, sometimes faced obstacles to securing ECCE, and ultimately were able to develop important social capital as a result of utilizing ECCE. The findings from this study will provide practitioners, policy makers, and researchers with a greater understanding of how immigrant families with young children adjust to life in the U.S., experience parenting, and how they navigate the U.S. ECCE system. This knowledge will contribute to creating the most effective programs, policies, and studies to support immigrant families.Item The Spatial and Social Dimensions of Innovation(2008-04-28) Nguyen, Doan; Howland, Marie; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)An understanding of how the built urban environment affects innovation will contribute significantly to the current high tech economic development policies across the country. With the employment competition in the globalized economy, city and county governments have identify knowledge based economic activities, including innovation, as a new source to create high pay jobs. They pursue high-tech economic development policies by creating special high tech centers and parks, providing tax breaks to high tech companies, and increasing funding to research activities. If urban environment can be shown to have impacts on innovative activities, city planners could devise land use policies to improve innovation and thus create new jobs. Urban sprawl, characterized with leap frog development and low population density, is a common phenomenon in American urban landscape and has attracted a fair amount of attention from planning scholars. Urban sprawl leads to longer commute distances and automobile dependence, which likely creates impediment to face-to-face interaction important to the innovation process. To answer that question, the current paper examines the mechanism of urban environment that may influence innovative activities, based on what has been discussed in the literature regarding urban sprawl, social cohesion, and knowledge localization. The empirical analysis uses the US patent data by application years from 1990 through 2002 (Hall, Jaffe, and Trajtenberg 2001, Hall 2003), the county compactness data (Ewing et al. 2003), and the Social Capital Benchmark Survey data (Roper Center 2005). Among important findings, urban form has some impacts on innovation activities. However, more compact counties are associated with lower innovation after controlling for other factors. Social trust is positively associated with innovation meanwhile faith ties are negatively associated with innovation. The results regarding urban form and innovation may not be conclusive because of certain limitations in the way urban form has been captured. The study sets up a solid framework for future studies before we advocate using the land use planning tool as part of innovation policies.Item Mindful Use as a Link Between Social Capital and Organizational Learning: An Empirical Test of the Antecedents and Consequences of Two New Constructs(2006-11-28) Adams, Heather Lynn; Lucas, Hank; Decision and Information Technologies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The motivation for this research is that information systems are not often used to their full potential - individuals often fail to use valuable features of systems not allowing firms to maximize their return from investments in these technologies. Additionally, there have been recent calls for new conceptualizations of system use and for research that examines post-adoption use. Therefore, the current research develops two new conceptualizations of system use: full appropriation and heedful use. These new concepts can help address under-utilization issues and fill gaps in the current literature. Full appropriation is fully exploiting applicable features of a system and heedful use is interacting with a system in a way that considers the needs of others within an organization. These conceptualizations are developed from psychological theories on mindfulness which have not been used to study system use. It is expected that a mindful approach to technology can lead to many positive benefits in the workplace. The first step in the current research was to develop and validate measures for these two new forms of use. Then the predictors of full appropriation and heedful use were examined with a social capital lens. The final step of this research was to examine the influence that these broader forms of use have on organizational learning since it has been suggested that organizational learning is the missing link between IT and firm performance. Data from 591 subjects from two separate organizations provided evidence of construct validity of the two newly developed scales and provided support for the overall model indicating a relationship between social capital and mindful use and a relationship between mindful use and organizational learning.Item Essays on Volunteering(2006-08-08) Helms, Sara Ellen; Evans, William N; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Volunteer activity is an important part of the lives of Americans. This dissertation uses economic analysis to study volunteering. The first essay examines the impact of mandated service on public school students in Maryland. Proponents of mandates note that individual volunteer activity is correlated over time, and therefore argue that mandates will create lifetime volunteers. Prior studies demonstrate that the observed characteristics of volunteers are different from nonvolunteers. Thus, it is possible that unobserved characteristics drive the correlation in service over time and the policy will not increase future service. Using restricted-access data from the Monitoring the Future project, I find mandates increased volunteering among eighth-grade students. However, by the twelfth grade, I find the law had at best no impact on volunteer activity, and in some specifications it reduced volunteering. In contrast to creating lifelong volunteers, my results suggest that the mandate changed the timing of volunteering, but did not alter overall volunteering among affected students. The second essay examines the impact of survey nonresponse on inferences about volunteer behavior. Time use diaries are a key source of data on volunteering, though they typically have a high nonresponse rate. Since participation in surveys and volunteering are likely influenced by the same qualities, nonresponse bias may distort estimates of volunteering. A random subsample of individuals appears in both the Current Population Survey (CPS) September Volunteer Supplement and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). As such, we can compare the reported volunteering (as found in the CPS) for ATUS respondents to that of nonrespondents in order to uncover the impact of unobservable differences. We find higher levels of volunteer activity among ATUS survey respondents than nonrespondents, differences that persist across narrowly-defined demographic groups. Using regression analysis, with annual hours spent volunteering as the dependent variable, we control for the observable characteristics available in the data and compare the results found using the full sample to the respondents-only sample. Although the signs on the coefficient estimates are generally consistent across the samples, the size of the estimates varies in magnitude, indicating that nonresponse bias continues to exist.Item Having Their Say: Eight High-Achieving African-American Undergraduate Mathematics Majors Discuss Their Success and Persistence in Mathematics(2006-07-26) Ellington, Roni; Fries-Britt, Sharon L.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to identify and understand the factors that influence high-achieving African American mathematics majors to persist and succeed in mathematics. The major research question guiding this study was: What perceived factors contribute to high achieving African-American junior and senior mathematics majors' decision to persist and succeed in mathematics through college? This study also sought to answer the following sub questions: 1. In what ways do African- American high achievers perceive the role of the family, educational institutions, and the community in their success and persistence in mathematics? 2. How do they perceive their own role in their success and persistence in mathematics? This study sought to understand which factors shaped the participants' decision to persist and succeed in mathematics. This study employed interpretive case study methodology in which interview data from eight high-achieving African-American mathematics majors were collected, transcribed and analyzed. The study employed elements from social, cultural, and personal factors identified in mathematics education research and factors from the college persistence literature relating to African-American students. Findings indicate that parents played an essential role in providing these high achievers with early learning experiences and advocating for them in school environments. By doing this, the students were placed in advanced academic programs by third grade that gave them access to caring teachers who held high expectations for them and provided them with challenging mathematics experiences. Participating in accelerated academic programs, having access to advanced mathematics coursework, and having peer support and teacher encouragement were factors that shaped their mathematics success in high school. Participants were involved in college scholarship programs that provided them with a variety of resources, particularly faculty and peer support that were key factors to their success and persistence as mathematics majors. The participants' social consciousness and spirituality were key factors underlying their success and persistence in mathematics, particularly in college. Implications for practice, policy and research are presented.Item HUMAN CAPITAL, SOCIAL CAPITAL, AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: HOW DOES THE SLICE OF PIE EXECUTIVES APPROPRIATE COMPARE TO WHAT THEY BRING TO THE TABLE?(2004-11-24) Di Gregorio, Dante Dominic; Smith, Ken G; Stevens, Cynthia K; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Prior research has identified the manner in which human capital, social capital, and other intangible resources create value for organizations. Among such resources, those contributed by a firm's top managers have been singled out as particularly important for the generation and preservation of competitive advantage. However, the costs incurred to gain access to these resources, which reside at the individual and relational levels rather than at the firm level, are rarely considered. In this dissertation, I focus on individual executives as the level of analysis instead of the traditional view of firms as unitary actors in order to study intra-organizational value appropriation. I focus on the most direct and economically significant form of value appropriation by top managers: executive compensation. I introduce a theoretical framework linking executive compensation to executive-level intangible resources including human capital and social capital. I distinguish between generic and firm-specific forms of capital due to differences in the causal mechanisms linking each type of resource to compensation. Generic resources convey market power and are directly appropriable by executives. Firm-specific resources have no value outside the firm and therefore do not convey market power, yet they will convey a different sort of power derived from familiarity, visibility, and legitimacy. Drawing on a sample of 71 executives from 36 publicly-traded US firms in high-technology industries, I provide empirical results that are broadly supportive of three of four hypotheses. Executive compensation is found to be positively related to generic human capital (measured by the breadth of executives' experience across multiple industries), generic social capital (external network size, external network range) and firm-specific social capital (the strength of intra-TMT ties, internal network size, criticality of internal ties, criticality of external ties). I find no evidence linking executive compensation to firm-specific human capital. These results demonstrate the hazard of focusing on the value created by human capital and social capital without also considering the costs firms incur to access those resources.