Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    SUPPLY CHAIN STRUCTURE, PRODUCT RECALLS AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: INVESTIGATING RECALL DRIVERS AND RECALL FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIPS
    (2013) Steven, Adams Brima; Corsi, Thomas; Business and Management: Logistics, Business & Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation is a two-essay study on globalization, sourcing structure and product quality and firm performance in global supply chain management. In the first essay, using a unique archival dataset on firms and their suppliers, the role of supply chain strategies in contributing to product safety and quality, as assessed through product recalls are investigated. The second essay investigates the relationship between product recalls and firm performance. Moreover, the moderating effects on the recall-profitability relationship of supply chain as well as recall management strategies are investigated . Essay 1 investigates how a number of supply chain strategies contribute to product recalls. In particular, I examine how the make or buy decision (i.e., outsourcing), the decision to concentrate the supply base (i.e., use few vs. several suppliers), the use of foreign suppliers (i.e., offshoring), and the extent of global operations, contribute to product recalls. The subject area of product quality and safety failures leading to product recalls is important because product recalls can have a major, negative impact on firm performance. For example, in the event of a product recall, replacement orders may need to be shipped, new suppliers may need to be found and vetted, and marketing expenditures may need to be made to counter negative publicity from the recall. Applying key theories in operations and supply chain management, I find that firms vary greatly in recall propensity and that these variations are related to heterogeneity in outsourcing, offshoring, and supply base concentration. In the second essay, I revisit the recall-performance relationship. First, I investigate the relationship between product recalls and profitability. Firms may choose to try to avoid product recalls by increasing their expenditures on product quality and inspection services. Or, on the other hand, they may emphasize short term profitability by reducing production and inspection costs, thereby increasing the risk of incurring a product recall. Since firms are expected to balance production and quality inspection costs against the costs associated with product recalls in order to maximize profit performance, the recall-profitability relationship is not clear, a priori. I further investigate the moderating effect of global operations, supply base structure and recall strategies on the relationship between product recalls and profit margins. My theory-based research suggests a curvilinear recall-profit relationship and that this relationship depends on key global supply chain practices and recall management strategies.
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    Decisions under Uncertainty in Decentralized Online Markets: Empirical Studies of Peer-to-Peer Lending and Outsourcing
    (2010) Lin, Mingfeng; Viswanathan, Siva; Lucas, Hank; Business and Management: Decision & Information Technologies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Recent developments in information technologies, especially Web 2.0 technologies, have radically transformed many markets through disintermediation and decentralization. Lower barriers of entry in these markets enable small firms and individuals to engage in transactions that were otherwise impossible. Yet, the issues of informational asymmetry that plague traditional markets still arise, only to be exacerbated by the "virtual" nature of these marketplaces. The three essays of my dissertation empirically examine how participants, many of whom are entrepreneurs, tackle the issue of asymmetric information to derive benefits from trade in two different contexts. In Essay 1, I investigate the role of online social networks in mitigating information asymmetry in an online peer-to-peer lending market, and find that the relational dimensions of these networks are especially effective for this purpose. In Essay 2, I exploit a natural experiment in the same marketplace to study the effect of shared geographical ties on investor decisions, and find that "home bias" is not only robust but also has an interesting interaction pattern with rational decision criteria. In Essay 3, I study how the emergence of new contract forms, enabled by new monitoring technologies, changes the effectiveness of traditional signals that affect a buyers' choice of sellers in online outsourcing. Using a matched-sample approach, I show that the effectiveness of online ratings and certifications differs under pay-for-time contracts versus pay-for-deliverable contracts. In all, the three essays of my dissertation present new empirical evidence of how agents leverage various network ties, signals and incentives to facilitate transactions in decentralized online markets, form transactional ties, and reap the benefits enabled by the transformative power of information technologies.
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    TO LOHN OR NOT TO LOHN--A PUZZLE IN SUBCONTRACTING ARRANGEMENTS: THEORY AND EVIDENCE
    (2009) Andrei, Simona Cristina; Betancourt, Roger; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The dramatic increase in outsourcing has led to a burgeoning theoretical literature that tries to explain the associated organization of production. So far the literature has focused solely on analyzing the determinants of decisions by outsourcing firms, but has ignored the firms to which production is outsourced. This dissertation bridges this gap in the literature by studying outsourcing decisions not from the point of view of the outsourcing firm alone, but as a joint process that actively involves the manufacturer to whom production is outsourced. We focus on a particular form of international outsourcing, also known as the lohn system , in which the outsourcing firm provides the manufacturer with inputs needed to produce and then re-imports the final goods. We use an incomplete contracts framework to develop a theoretical model that shows that the lohn system is more likely to be adopted the lower the manufacturer's ability to find low-cost inputs; the lower the bargaining power of the manufacturer; and the lower the degree of relationship-specificity. In order to test empirically the predictions of the theoretical model we exploit two unique firm-level databases with monthly data on physical production and balance sheet items for a large number of firms in Romania. We use the data sources to construct two data sets, at the firm and firm-product level, respectively. We present firm-level results for cross-sections for the years 2005 and 2006, while at the firm-product-level we provide results for both cross-section and panel data. Our empirical findings support the main predictions of the theoretical model. For instance, measuring the bargaining power of the manufacturer as the ratio of domestic to export sales, we show that the lower this ratio is, the more likely it is that the manufacturer will adopt the lohn system. Similarly, we find that the lower the firm or product specificity, the higher the use of the lohn system. Using firm age as a measure of its ability to obtain the low-cost input provides mixed evidence for our theoretical prediction. Our results are robust to the use of different estimation procedures, measures, and samples.
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    Civilianization of the Military: Social-Psychological Effects of Integrating Civilians and Military Personnel
    (2005-05-25) Kelty, Ryan D.; Segal, David R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The U.S. Federal government is increasingly civilianizing the military as a manpower management strategy. Combining military personnel with civilians creates a bifurcated work setting resulting in differential structural and environmental job characteristic between service members and civilians. Analyses of the process and outcomes of Federal civilianization of the military have focused predominantly on economic outcomes and have failed to confirm or refute its effectiveness as a management strategy. In this study I argue that social-psychological outcomes must be considered in evaluating the effects of military civilianization. Data gathered from case studies of the Navy and Army are path analyzed to determine the direct and indirect effects of two civilianization variables on retention intentions. Sailors and soldiers report feeling relatively deprived compared to the civilians with whom they work. For sailors, but not soldiers, these feelings of deprivation decrease with level of contact with civilians. Soldiers and sailors report being satisfied with their jobs, but less satisfied than their civilian co-workers. Civilians are significantly more committed to their employers than service members are committed to the military. While at least 75% of the civilians in each case study lean toward or plan to stay with their current employer, just over a third of service personnel expressed positive intentions to remain with the military. Social comparisons significantly and negatively impact sailors' and soldiers' intentions to remain in military service past current enlistment obligations, but this effect is only indirect through job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Neither level of contact nor social comparisons with civilians have a significant direct effect on intention to remain in service for military personnel. Consistent with prior research, job satisfaction significantly increases organizational commitment, which, in turn, significantly increases retention intentions. Civilian mariner data indicate that social comparisons did not directly or indirectly affect retention intentions. Though sample size limited the ability to path analyze the data from the Army civilian contractors, correlation analysis suggests that similar patterns among variables are present in terms of direction and magnitude of the partial correlation coefficients. Implications of these results and recommendations for future research are discussed.
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    THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN SENEGAL
    (2005-01-25) Nordtveit, Bjorn Harald; Klees, Steven J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The World Bank and other international institutions often promote market-based solutions for implementation of public services. This research examines the set-up, implementation, and results of public-private partnerships and outsourcing, using a World-Bank funded literacy project for women in Senegal as a case study. The case is analyzed from a critical and welfare economics perspective, as well as from a neoliberal view, and shows how the analytical approach conditions the understanding of the project. The World Bank implements much of its development projects in the belief that the market is more cost-effective than government implementation. In this case, literacy education was not funded by the World Bank until the Senegalese state had formulated a project that fit the Bank's neoliberal policy vision. The requirement of private implementation strategies was a way to impose marked-based solutions that in the end proved to be unreasonable and ineffective. Analysis of enrollment, success and drop-out rates shows that the project enrolled approximately 180,000 learners, of which only about 44,000 learned to write and read. The literacy courses offered very cheap and very ineffective schooling (whereas the state-implemented primary school system offered much more expensive but also a somewhat more effective education). Literacy education offered in Senegal therefore appears to be poor education for the poorest of the citizens. The literacy providers offered low-quality literacy learning because they wanted to make money from the service delivery, and therefore cut costs. The government and the World Bank failed to correct these negative aspects of the public-private partnership system. The outsourcing affected civil society in Senegal. The project created and structured civil society by helping to establish women's associations in the villages. However, outsourcing also had a negative effect, since provider associations increasingly became businesses that were dependent on politicians, and corrupt practices multiplied. In order to improve literacy education in Senegal, it is necessary to acknowledge the inability of the market to solve literacy problems on its own, and to adopt a more balanced distribution of responsibilities between the public and the private sectors.