Business Commons^™

Social Entrepreneurship And Wealth-Building Plans: Creative Strategies For Working Class Americans, Wayne R. Curtiss

Dissertations & Theses

This study investigated how the elements of social entrepreneurship with wealth-building strategies can advance the creation of wealth and serve as a mechanism for social change. This research takes a modest first step toward demystifying social entrepreneurship, better understanding the phenomenon, and exploring the relevance of wealth-building in social entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, this exploratory study used a multiple case study design to understand how existing social entrepreneurial ventures include wealth-building strategies, such as employee stock ownership plans for working class Americans. The concept of social entrepreneurship is relatively new. There is general agreement that the concept combines a passion for ...

U.S. Multinationals Abroad: Fdi Determinants In The Global Food Sector, Brandon Charles Banner

Master's Theses and Project Reports

The following study assesses economic and political determinants of foreign direct investment by U.S. firms. Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Commerce was used for total and food sector FDI for 35 countries from the years 2001-2008. Using these data in three econometric models, the paper examines the effect on FDI of regional trade blocs as well as political factors such as labor and credit market regulations, and transfers and subsidies. Finally, the thesis provides a comparison of each model on two dependent variables: food sector and total FDI. The study finds ...

To Believe In Black Stars Or Red Dragons?: Comparing The Foreign Direct Investment Climates Of Ghana And China, Theodore W. Briscoe Iii

William & Mary Business Law Review

When thinking of overseas business expansion, most think of China. This is for good reason: China commands a lion’s share of foreign direct investment money. It would shock readers to know that there are destinations that are far more suitable for overseas investment than China. It would shock readers even more to know that one of these destinations is in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ghana—the Black Star country—has quietly put together a legal regime that is extremely attractive for foreign direct investment. When comparing Ghana’s foreign investment policies to China’s, Ghana’s policies are indisputably more favorable ...

The Constitution, The Roberts Court, And Business: The Significant Business Impact Of The 2011-2012 Supreme Court Term, Corey Ciocchetti

William & Mary Business Law Review

The 2011–2012 Supreme Court Term created quite the media buzz. The Affordable Care Act cases and the controversial Arizona immigration law dominated the headlines. But the Term also included other fascinating yet less sensationalized cases. The Court heard its fair share of criminal law controversies involving derelict defense attorneys and prosecutors, as well as civil procedure disputes involving qualified immunity for witnesses in grand jury proceedings and private parties assisting the government in litigation. The Justices also entertained arguments on a federal law allowing United States citizens born in Jerusalem to have “Israel” stamped as their birthplace on a ...

Not All Risk Is Born Equal: The Behavioral Agency Model & Firm Efficacy, Geoffrey P. Martin Dr, Nathan T. Washburn Dr, Marianna Makri Dr

Geoffrey P Martin

We examine the relationship between agent (CEO) risk bearing and the quality of executive risk taking outcomes, by examining the contingency effect of CEO perceived firm efficacy. In doing so, we extend the behavioral agency model (BAM) beyond predictions of risk magnitude to examining how CEO risk taking outcomes differ qualitatively in response to risk bearing. We argue that CEO risk bearing (due to stock options or cash compensation) will positively influence performance outcomes in the presence of higher perceived firm efficacy. However, this positive influence reverses when efficacy is lower. We demonstrate the utility of firm efficacy in exploring ...

Division Buyout And Refinancing Of Event Risk Covenant Bonds: Evidence From The Long-Term Stock Performance, Manish Tewari

Business-Economics Faculty Publications

The focus of this paper is to assess the long-term common stock performance of the parent firms that underwent divisional buyout (DBO) and had event risk covenant (ERC) bonds outstanding at the announcement of the DBO. The final sample of 46 parent firms exhibit a common characteristic where all the ERC bonds were redeemed (either called above par or put on the firm at par) or restructured at a higher cost to the firm around DBO announcement date due to the presence of ERCs. ERCs are triggered since the parent firms that divest their assets through a DBO reveal future ...

Lean Processes Without Compromising Controls, Robyn L. Raschke, Michael T. Lee, Arti Mann

Accountancy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In today’s economic environment, governments feel the pressure to operate more efficiently, and many are therefore considering the gradual and continuous process improvement that Lean provides. Lean begins by examining a process from beginning to end, without departmental barriers; identifying the parts of the process that are inefficient; making a case for Lean improvements; and improving the process by reducing activities and waste that don’t add value to the consumer of the process.

Social Media Assimilation In Firms: Investigating The Roles Of Absorptive Capacity And Institutional Pressures, Pratyush Bharati, Chen Zhang, Abhijit Chaudhury

Pratyush Bharati

Firms are increasingly employing social media to manage relationships with partner organizations, yet the role of institutional pressures in social media assimilation has not been studied. We investigate social media assimilation in firms using a model that combines the two theoretical streams of IT adoption: organizational innovation and institutional theory. The study uses a composite view of absorptive capacity that includes both previous experience with similar technology and the general ability to learn and exploit new technologies. We find that institutional pressures are an important antecedent to absorptive capacity, an important measure of organizational learning capability. The paper augments theory ...

Factors Influencing Students’ Selection Of A Bank, Wei Tai, Jiage Zhu

MBA Student Scholarship

The paper aims to determine what factors influence students’ choice of bank. Exploratory sample data (N= 100) was taken from students at John & Wales University, Brown University, and the University of Rhode Island (All Southern New England). The instrument was comprised of fourteen questions, ten being derived from the related literature: service provision, the proximity of ATM, branch location, card design, students benefit, service charge, financial products, recommendation, security, and online service. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed using convenience sampling; 94 were returned, and among them 89 were deemed valid, yielding a response rate of 89%. This rate was considered sufficient for exploratory survey research, using the self-administered questionnaire approach. Responses were measured using the five-point Likert type scale on importance, which ranged from 1 (“not at all important”) to 5 (“very important”). A rank order of the top three factors are: first, “Secure Feelings” (M = 4.70; SD = 0.412); the second, “Proximity of Branch and ...

Presentation Of Dissertation: Material Weaknesses In Internal Control Over Compliance For Federal Grants To U.S. Counties, Julie Hyde

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Essential Skills For Leadership Effectiveness In Diverse Workplace Development, Szu-Fang Chuang

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

Globalization, technology advances, and diversity have greatly influenced international business and multinational management operations. Global managers cannot consistently apply traditional leadership when dealing with multiple cultural conflicts and managing international employees in the rapidly changed diverse workplace. This study is an initial effort to examine the new looks of leadership in the diverse workplace development and identify essential leadership skills demanded in a global context. Global leaders need to develop cultural awareness, global mindset, interpersonal skill and effective manager-employee relationship in facing the changes and challenges of the global market. Eleven essential leadership skills for the global leaders to promote ...

Hill, J. Murray, Sr., 1891-1961 (Sc 963), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 963. Letters, 1918 (3), written by prominent Bowling Green, Kentucky, businessmen, attesting to the good character and competencies of J. Murray Hill, Sr. Also Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Bowling Green, stock certificate, 1942.

Inclusive Business: Using For-Profit Business Models To Address Global Poverty, Samuel James Conner

Senior Honors Papers

Due to the rise of globalization, modernization, and the Internet revolution, awareness of global poverty has expanded, making its eradication a chief goal of the global development community for the twenty-first century. Though corporations are often expected to participate in social and community development initiatives without regard for profits, this paper presents inclusive business as a way for businesses to profitably engage impoverished segments of society. Inclusive businesses seek to expand their consumer bases or strengthen their supply chains by moving into new markets among the poor that have limited access to global markets and remain largely untapped. The research ...

Book Publishers And Libraries: Historic Partners Facing A Disruptive Technology, Tom Allen

Maine Policy Review

The explosion of digital materials and e-readers has disrupted the historic partnership between book publishers and libraries. Tom Allen explains that the new business models required for more widespread e-lending will necessarily involve compromises. He suggests that e-lending pilot projects between individual publishers and libraries are a promising development.

A Multi-Restart Iterated Local Search Algorithm For The Permutation Flow Shop Problem Minimizing Total Flow Time, Xingye Dong, Ping Chen, Houkuan Huang, Maciek Nowak

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A variety of metaheuristics have been developed to solve the permutation flow shop problem minimizing total flow time. Iterated local search (ILS) is a simple but powerful metaheuristic used to solve this problem. Fundamentally, ILS is a procedure that needs to be restarted from another solution when it is trapped in a local optimum. A new solution is often generated by only slightly perturbing the best known solution, narrowing the search space and leading to a stagnant state. In this paper, a strategy is proposed to allow the restart solution to be generated from a group of solutions drawn from ...

Netflix: A Strategy To Succeed?, John Landi, Sean Roberts

Master's Level Graduate Research Conference

Netflix remodeled the video rental market with its DVD-by-mail service, but they have changed their strategy and they want to focus on instant streaming. Competitors like Amazon prime, Hulu Plus and Redbox have all made names for themselves, and have started to take customers from Netflix. Netflix wants to stay ahead of their competitors so they wanted to increase their streamlining capabilities. To focus on streaming, Netflix wanted to re-brand their DVD-by-mail service, and changed their pricing to focus on streaming. This paper will focus on the strategy Netflix used to re-brand its DVD-by-mail service, and the price changes Netflix ...

Which Airline Manufacturer Will Be The Industry Leader In Five Years?, David Burdick, Joseph Diponzio

Master's Level Graduate Research Conference

Within the Airline Manufacturing Industry there have been two prominent leaders, Airbus and Boeing. Both have become emerging leaders with the introduction of new aircraft such as the AirbusA380 as well as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Throughout time, there have been many different aircraft manufacturing companies and now we see Boeing and Airbus rise to the top. Boeing has a rich history which dates back to 1916. Airbus has only been around since 1970 but has been a huge rival for Boeing. A number of different barriers and occurrences have happened to these companies over time but a lot of ...

The Opportunistic Reporting Of Material Events And The Apparent Misconception Of Investors' Reaction, Dan Segal, Benjamin Segal

Research Collection School of Accountancy (Open Access)

Using a comprehensive sample of non-earnings 8-K filings from 1996 to 2011, we examine whether firms engage in opportunistic reporting of mandatory and voluntary news. We find strong evidence of opportunistic reporting of negative news, especially among public firms. Public firms are more likely to delay disclosure of negative news, report negative news after trading hours, and report on the last day of the week. We also find evidence of opportunistic bundling of news. Our findings support the notion that managers engage in strategic disclosure by delaying or obfuscating negative news in order to mitigate the potential market reaction. Factors ...

R&D Reporting Rule And Firm Efficiency, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Yoshie Saito, Ram Venkataraman, Jeff Yu

Research Collection School of Accountancy (Open Access)

US GAAP (SFAS 2) requires immediate expensing of research and development (R&D) expenditure. Critics of this rule contend that the current treatment incentivizes managers to cut essential investments in R&D to manage short-term profits, and such actions could lead to longer-term adverse consequences for firms and investors. While other observers argue that there is little rigorous research that suggests that the current accounting treatment has harmful consequences. In this study, we exploit a setting in Germany when the accounting rule for R&D reporting changed from immediate expensing (as in the U.S.) to partial capitalization when Germany ...

Revisiting The Determinants Of Students' Performance In An Undergraduate Accountancy Degree Programme In Singapore, Poh Sun Seow, Shan Chi Gary Pan, Siok Wan, Joanne Tay

Research Collection School of Accountancy (Open Access)

This study investigates the association of prior academic achievement, admission interview, critical thinking, mathematical aptitude, gender and age with successful academic performance in an undergraduate accountancy degree programme at a Singapore university. The purpose of revisiting the determinants of academic performance is twofold: first, university accounting education in Singapore has changed greatly since Koh and Koh’s earlier study (1999); this study examines if determinants previously identified as significant continue to be so in the new setting; second, the study tests the usefulness of admission interview in identifying applicants who achieve subsequent academic success. Data on students’ performance throughout the ...