This research aims to investigate the (1) review effects on consumer decision making process, (2) effects of negative reviews on brand equity, and (3) consumers' likely response to a brand's request for reviews. The objective of the first essay is to investigate the nature of the relationship between skepticism and consumer decision making in an online behavior context. Its second objective is to know whether people's belief on their abilities or their hedonic principle moderates the relationship between a person's skepticism toward online reviews and their reliance on online reviews. The objective of the second essay is to explore whether negative online reviews that focus on service quality specific dimensions have a different effect on a service organization's perceived brand equity. Its second objective is to analyze the role of emotional contagion in the relationship between negative reviews related to various service quality dimensions and its effect on perceived brand equity. The main objective of the third essay is to know whether consumers are more likely to write an online review for a brand when the request comes from a higher equity brand. This essay also investigates how message trust and persuasion knowledge influence the relationship between a brand's request …

Firms' operational restructuring involves information relevant to strategic choices as well as future demand and cost conditions. This study examines the relationship between peer firms' restructuring and a company's responsiveness to its growth opportunities. Peer firm restructuring can increase uncertainty with respect to a company's payoffs regarding its investment projects, leading to decreased responsiveness to growth opportunities. Using a large sample of public companies during 2006–2020, I find that peer firms' restructuring is negatively associated with the responsiveness of capital expenditures (Capex) to growth opportunities. The results suggest that peer firms' restructuring activities provide information about a company's investment projects above and beyond industry shocks reflected in changes in industry sales. Furthermore, these associations are moderated by industry competition. The negative effects of peer firms' restructuring on Capex sensitivity are the strongest in high-competition industries.

The objective of this dissertation is to first identify if there are any academic research gaps in our understanding of the medical supply chain and secondly to understand the role and impact of logistics on the human organ transplant process. The first essay identifies the current status of medical supply chain literature and provides future direction for improving the medical supply chain. This was accomplished by preforming a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis from 2,160 publications was conducted. The second essay explores how logistical aspects impact transplant logistics performance and the quality of life for the transplant recipient. Survey data was collected from medical professionals and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The third essay identifies the factors are influencing the number of donor kidneys discarded each year. A retrospective analysis of all deceased donor kidneys procured in hospitals in UNOS region 4 (Texas and Oklahoma) from January 1, 2001, to June 28, 2021, was conducted. Data was analyzed using multinomial logit regression and panel data analysis. As a result, we identified several medical and logistics factors that have influenced the number of donor kidneys discarded in the United States.

This dissertation research explores the factors that influence direct selling agents' sales performance and job satisfaction. In the direct selling channels, the agents not only sell the products to customers. They may concurrently perform a "distributor" role as a stand-alone entity composed of their own sales network. This dissertation research features two essays. The first essay investigates how direct selling agents' perceptions of control and sense of belonging relate to PO. This essay further explores how PO influences job performance and job satisfaction. Results suggest that perception of control and sense of belonging fuel PO. Furthermore, leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between PO and sales performance, as well as PO and job satisfaction in direct selling networks. The second essay introduces a new construct (relational incongruity) and discusses how complex sales environments and direct selling agents' organizational structures influence the relational incongruity in their organization and its ensuring effect on sales performance and job satisfaction. The results indicate that organizational complexity is positively related to relational incongruity. However, customer complexity has a negative impact on relational incongruity. Relational incongruity in direct selling agents' organizations has negative effects on job satisfaction but has no effects on sales performance. Epistemic curiosity undermines …

In collective affect research, an assumption is often made that through processes such as emotional contagion and attraction-selection-attrition members will converge unto a shared group affective tone. While this assumption is not without warrant, a limitation of previous work on interpersonal emotional processes of individuals, individuals within dyadic relationships, or members within teams is the lack of examination into the varying perceptions individuals may form regarding these affective experiences. To examine the development and influence of these affective perceptions, we extend recent works from work group conflict literature to examine the influence of perception asymmetry when applied to affective interactions. Wherein, we describe a novel construct of Perception Asymmetry of Affect (PAA). PAA refers to the congruence (e.g.; low level of PAA) or incongruence (e.g.; high level) of perceptions of positive and negative affective experiences between two or more individuals. This paper explores the following questions: 1) does perception asymmetry of affect exist; 2) if so, what causes perception asymmetry between individuals and their groups, within dyads, and within groups. This article contributes to literature on collective affect by offering a detailed framework for an understudied phenomenon of diverging or asymmetric perceptions.

Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, has been attracting attention from practitioners as well as academicians with its continuous evolution from being used primarily for prototyping to now end-product production. Despite this technology's current and future potential, few studies indicate that AM has not been extensively used across all industries. This dissertation addresses knowledge gaps by providing theoretical and empirical support for adopting AM through three essays that study the role of AM in restructuring supply chains. Essay 1 provides systematic support for AM implementation by developing a typology derived from technology-specific potentials and challenges to adopting AM. This study uses an exploratory research approach to collect and analyze data from semi-structured interviews of practitioners with deep knowledge of AM and supply chains from diverse industries. In Essay 2, our results show that AM adoption positively influences supply chain responsiveness and, in turn, reshoring decisions. Essay 3 compares different supply chain configurations based on traditional and AM. We developed a hybrid simulation model combining discrete event simulation and agent-based simulation and compared the performance in terms of wait time and costs. Our results indicate that under certain conditions, the centralized configuration delivers spare parts faster than the distributed …

To address emerging challenges in empowering patients through telehealth, this dissertation has the following objectives: (a) find the key characteristics that enable patient empowerment [PE], (b) determining when will PE work as a solution, (c) find the optimal telehealth care method that enables PE, and (d) evaluate the impact of telehealth on health care outcomes (such as, patient satisfaction, patient trust with primary care providers, etc.) that ultimately enhances PE. These objectives are addressed in three studies presented here as three essays. Collectively, these essays contribute to the knowledge on PE, patient trust, and telehealth by providing insights on leveraging PE towards better health care services and delivery systems. Essay 1 aims to systemically map the concept of PE using principles of systems thinking with the Boardman soft systems methodology that enables a graphical visualization (i.e., systemigrams). Essay 2 investigates the practical and theoretical implications of connecting patients to empowerment care plans and minimizing wait times in healthcare service delivery using electronic prescriptions (s-scripts), phone calls, and video calls. In Essay 3, the mediating role of telehealth services between patient empowerment and patient satisfaction was analyzed, along with patient trust was assessed as a moderator between telehealth usability and patient …