ASU Scholarship Showcase

We argue that the strength with which the organization communicates expectations regarding the appropriate emotional expression toward customers (i.e., explicitness of display rules) has an inverted U-shaped relationship with service delivery behaviors, customer satisfaction, and sales performance. Further, we argue that service organizations need a particular blend of explicitness of display rules and role discretion for the purpose of optimizing sales performance. As hypothesized, findings from 2 samples of salespeople suggest that either high or low explicitness of display rules impedes service delivery behaviors and sales performance, which peaks at moderate explicitness of display rules and high role discretion. The findings also suggest that the explicitness of display rules has a positive relationship with customer satisfaction.

The impacts of information technology (IT) on total factor productivity (TFP) are assessed through an integrative framework of IT-induced externalities and IT-leveraged innovations. Based on network externalities and endogenous growth theory, our study aims to reconcile the seeming discrepancy between the recent observed evidence and the prediction by neoclassical growth theory. We argue that computerization has reshaped the competitive landscape into a network economy with IT-induced externalities that benefit not only IT purchasers but also other stakeholders. Moreover, IT is a platform technology that can leverage innovations to enhance the technological level of production process. Consequently, these two factors of IT-induced externalities and IT-leveraged innovations exert positive impacts on TFP, suggesting IT plays a more pivotal role than input consumption and accumulation that neoclassical growth theory assumes for IT. We use panel data from 30 Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries over the period of 2000–2009 to empirically test hypotheses on this IT-TFP link. Implications are drawn from our findings for future research to measure IT׳s contributions at the macro level more accurately, and policymakers are urged to cultivate IT׳s positive impacts on TFP to help sustain long-term economic growth.

Mobile applications markets with app stores have introduced a new approach to define and sell software applications with access to a large body of heterogeneous consumer population. This research examines key seller- and app-level characteristics that impact success in an app store market. We tracked individual apps and their presence in the top-grossing 300 chart in Apple's App Store and examined how factors at different levels affect the apps' survival in the top 300 chart. We used a generalized hierarchical modeling approach to measure sales performance, and confirmed the results with the use of a hazard model and a count regression model. We find that broadening app offerings across multiple categories is a key determinant that contributes to a higher probability of survival in the top charts. App-level attributes such as free app offers, high initial ranks, investment in less-popular (less-competitive) categories, continuous quality updates, and high-volume and high-user review scores have positive effects on apps' sustainability. In general, each diversification decision across a category results in an approximately 15 percent increase in the presence of an app in the top charts. Survival rates for free apps are up to two times more than that for paid apps. Quality (feature) updates to apps can contribute up to a threefold improvement in survival rate as well. A key implication of the results of this study is that sellers must utilize the natural segmentation in consumer tastes offered by the different categories to improve sales performance.

We use Spain’s Equality Law to test for the existence of agency problems between party leaders and their constituents. The law mandates a 40 percent female quota on electoral lists in towns with populations above 5,000. Using pre- and postquota data by party and municipality, we implement a triple-difference design. We find that female quotas resulted in slightly better electoral results for the parties that were most affected by the quota. Our evidence shows that party leaders were not maximizing electoral results prior to the quota, suggesting the existence of agency problems that hinder female representation in political institutions.

This study examined the impact of three alternative types of goals (specific learning, general “do your best” learning, and specific performance) on team performance. Eighty-four-person teams engaged in an interdependent command and control simulation in which the team goal and task complexity were manipulated. Contrary to research at the individual level, teams with specific learning goals performed worse than did teams with general “do your best” learning goals or specific performance goals. The negative effects of specific learning goals relative to general “do your best” learning goals and specific performance goals were amplified under conditions of increased task complexity and were explained by the amount of coordination in the teams.

Zintl phases are a class of intermetallic materials that have simultaneously ionic and covalent bonding resulting from charge transfer between two different atomic species. We present a combined first principles and experimental study of Zintl-phase SrAl4, which is grown in thin film form on the perovskite oxide LaAlO3 using molecular beam epitaxy. The structural properties are investigated using reflection-high-energy electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction, and cross-section transmission electron microscopy, which reveal relaxed epitaxial island growth. Photoelectron spectroscopy measurements verify the Zintl-Klemm nature of the bonding in the material and are utilized to determine the band offset and the work function of SrAl4, while transport measurements confirm its metallic behavior. The experimentally observed properties are confirmed using density functional calculations.

The (110) plane of Co₃O₄ spinel exhibits significantly higher rates of carbon monoxide conversion due to the presence of active Co³⁺ species at the surface. However, experimental studies of Co₃O₄ (110) surfaces and interfaces have been limited by the difficulties in growing high-quality films. We report thin (10–250 Å) Co₃O₄ films grown by molecular beam epitaxy in the polar (110) direction on MgAl₂O₄ substrates. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy measurements attest to the high quality of the as-grown films. Furthermore, we investigate the electronic structure of this material by core level and valence band x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and first-principles density functional theory calculations. Ellipsometry reveals a direct band gap of 0.75 eV and other interband transitions at higher energies. A valence band offset of 3.2 eV is measured for the Co₃O₄/MgAl₂O₄ heterostructure. Magnetic measurements show the signature of antiferromagnetic ordering at 49 K. FTIR ellipsometry finds three infrared-active phonons between 300 and 700 cm^-1.

Buyers often make supplier selection decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Although the analytical aspects of supplier selection are well developed, the psychological aspects are less so. This article uses supply chain management and behavioral decision theories to propose that attributes of the purchasing situation (category difficulty, category importance, and contingent pay) affect cognition that, in turn, affects a supply manager's choice. We conducted a supplier selection behavioral experiment with practicing managers to test the model's hypotheses. When the context involves an important or difficult sourcing category, higher risk perceptions exist that increase preference for a supplier with more certain outcomes, even when that choice has a lower expected payoff. However, the presence of contingent pay decreases risk perceptions through higher perceived supplier control. We also find that a manager's risk propensity increases preferences for a supplier with less certain outcomes regardless of perceived risk. Our model and results provide a theoretical framework for further study into the cognitive aspects of supplier selection behavior and provide insight into biases that influence practicing supply chain managers.

Novel hydride chemistries are employed to deposit light-emitting Ge_1-y Sn_yalloys with y ≤ 0.1 by Ultra-High Vacuum Chemical Vapor Deposition (UHV-CVD) on Ge-buffered Si wafers. The properties of the resultant materials are systematically compared with similar alloys grown directly on Si wafers. The fundamental difference between the two systems is a fivefold (and higher) decrease in lattice mismatch between film and virtual substrate, allowing direct integration of bulk-like crystals with planar surfaces and relatively low dislocation densities. For y ≤ 0.06, the CVD precursors used were digermane Ge₂H₆ and deuterated stannane SnD₄. For y ≥ 0.06, the Ge precursor was changed to trigermane Ge₃H₈, whose higher reactivity enabled the fabrication of supersaturated samples with the target film parameters. In all cases, the Ge wafers were produced using tetragermane Ge₄H₁₀ as the Ge source. The photoluminescence intensity from Ge_1-y Sn_y /Ge films is expected to increase relative to Ge_1-y Sn_y /Si due to the less defected interface with the virtual substrate. However, while Ge_1-y Sn_y /Si films are largely relaxed, a significant amount of compressive strain may be present in the Ge_1-y Sn_y /Ge case. This compressive strain can reduce the emission intensity by increasing the separation between the direct and indirect edges. In this context, it is shown here that the proposed CVD approach to Ge_1-y Sn_y /Ge makes it possible to approach film thicknesses of about 1  μm, for which the strain is mostly relaxed and the photoluminescence intensity increases by one order of magnitude relative to Ge_1-y Sn_y /Si films. The observed strain relaxation is shown to be consistent with predictions from strain-relaxation models first developed for the Si_1-x Ge_x /Si system. The defect structure and atomic distributions in the films are studied in detail using advanced electron-microscopy techniques, including aberration corrected STEM imaging and EELS mapping of the average diamond–cubic lattice.

We report the results of an ethnographic study of a natural food cooperative in which we found an inherent tension in its mission between idealism and pragmatism, and we explore the dynamics through which that tension was managed and engaged in day-to-day governance and activities. Insights from participant observation, archival data, semi-structured interviews, and surveys provide a detailed and holistic account of the intergroup and intragroup processes through which the co-op negotiated its dualistic nature, as embodied in its hybrid organizational identity. The findings suggest that the value of each side of the duality was recognized at both the individual and organizational levels. Members’ discomfort with the duality, however, led them to split the mission in two and identify with one part, while projecting their less-favored part on others, creating an identity foil (an antithesis). This splitting resulted in ingroups and outgroups and heated intergroup conflict over realizing cooperative ideals vs. running a viable business. Ingroup members favoring one part of the mission nonetheless identified with the outgroup favoring the other because it embodied a side of themselves they continued to value. Individuals who exemplified their ingroup’s most extreme attributes were seen by the outgroup as prototypical, thus serving as “lightning rods” for intergroup conflict; this dynamic paradoxically enabled other ingroup members to work more effectively with moderate members of the outgroup. The idealist–pragmatist duality was kept continually in play over time through oscillating decisions and actions that shifted power from one group to the other, coupled with ongoing rituals to repair and maintain relationships disrupted by the messiness of the process. Thus ostensible dysfunctionality at the group level fostered functionality at the organizational level.