Digital Commons Network^™

Finance And Artificial Intelligence, Luke Schawang

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into finance represents a significant evolution in the industry, one that has been ongoing for years but is now accelerating rapidly. This paper explores the various forms and functions of AI, from reactive machines to the potential for superintelligence, and examines its impact on banking, business finance, and investing.

In banking, AI has bolstered cybersecurity and fraud detection, leveraging machine learning algorithms to continuously improve accuracy and efficiency. Similarly, in business finance, AI tools like chatbots and algorithms streamline processes, enhance productivity, and reduce costs. In investing, AI-driven solutions such as robo advisors offer …

What Makes Us "Good" Leaders?, Dante Rossini

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

What makes us good leaders? It’s a question that philosophers, politicians and business strategists alike have been asking for centuries. Generations of scholars have sought to pinpoint the various attributes and characteristics that define leadership beyond a formal organizational role. Going a step beyond, extensive research has also been devoted to deciphering what abilities make certain individuals successful as leaders in comparison to their peers, along with how aspiring leaders can practice these abilities to hone their own leadership performance. All of this research culminates in an intimidating amount of literature, riddled with a broad array of theories and conclusions …

Spiking Engagement: Analyzing Social Media Tactics And Fan Interaction In The Omaha Supernovas, Anne Thomas

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The available engagement of social media for firms and their target market is unmatched. Rather than a one-way communication, it is an open channel. Potential customers can share their thoughts and feelings on the firms’ products and services, and firms can connect with their customers and create brand loyalty. This opens opportunities for marketers to look at new ways and strategies to connect with their customers. This is the same for professional sports teams. Just like a traditional firm, professional sports teams rely on being able to connect with and sell to their target market.

The newly established Omaha Supernovas …

To Tip Or Not To Tip: An Analysis Into Prompted Tipping, Jared Dingman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Giving tips (or gratuities) in restaurants in the United States has been and is currently a hotly debated and discussed topic. Concerns regarding proper compensation have been raised, but there is a need for empirical evidence to investigate and solve potential issues of compensation. This honors thesis aimed to answer two questions: Whether restaurant patrons tip more when prompted with tipping percentages, and whether those who have worked in the tipping industry tip more than those who have not. I administered a brief survey with tipping scenarios to gauge prompted and unprompted tipping behaviors. With these scenarios, demographic information was …

Modern Technology And Its Impact On The Control Panel Manufacturing Industry, Keegan Kenney

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This paper will explore emerging technologies and their effect within the control panel manufacturing industry. A control panel is defined by Automation Ready Panels as, “a metallic box that allows the person to control all electric equipment, appliances, and circuits mechanically by using electric energy” (What is an Electrical Control Panel?, 2022; Refer to Appendix A for a visual on what a control panel looks like). These are most commonly seen in large industrial equipment, such as assembly lines, rock crushers, etc. The innovations studied in this paper include 2D and 3D drawing, augmented reality, computer assisted manufacturing, …

How To Build Student Organizations In A Post-Pandemic World: A Strategic Analysis, Allison Karr

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

As student organizations recover from the damaging effects of COVID, how do they encourage membership retention and involvement? Post-pandemic, the Beta Alpha Psi chapter at the University of Nebraska at Omaha has had an involvement problem, which stems from there being a misalignment between the value that students desire and the value that the organization provides. To find the areas of the misalignment, different values offered by student organizations were identified. Then, the significance attributed to each value by Beta Alpha Psi members was assessed, and the extent to which Beta Alpha Psi delivers on each of these values was …

Good Governance, Bad Governance: A Refinement And Application Of Key Governance Concepts, Scott L. Mitchell, Mark D. Packard, Brent B. Clark

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Understanding what makes governance 'good' or 'bad' has been impeded by construct ambiguity. Contemporary governance research has struggled to define 'governance' and related constructs such as 'ownership', 'agency', and 'management' in a way that clearly separates and distinguishes them. Often, the line between governance and management is so blurred that it is impossible to say what is good or bad 'governance' versus 'management'. Here we provide a systematic classification of key governance concepts in terms of their distinct economic functions. 'Governance', for instance, is the economic function of behavioural constraint. This allows us to state what 'good' governance is and …

Accountng Analysis Of A Goodwill Industries International, Elizabeth Howard

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Goodwill Industries International has clean financial health. They are liquid after COVID but plan to invest in different services directed at digital skills. They have no long-term debt, which frees up cash for services and can be considered a strength. Weaknesses in the financials directly attributable to COVID were: a cancellation of 2 million dollars’ worth of pledges in 2020, a decrease of 40 million dollars of program expense over two years, and a drop in investment return to 2.88%. Program expense ratio and Fund-Raising ratio are excellent at 91% and 2.2% respectively in 2021. Weaknesses I find are mostly …

Consolidated Training Curriculum, Braden Myers

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The onboarding and training process is a crucial part of any business’s hiring process. Through a robust training system, a business can streamline the downtime it takes for a new employee to “learn the ropes.”

This phenomenon can be very pronounced in businesses with complex programs and tasks, like the accounting profession.

Through the coordination of three different departments, a web-based learning software, and administration, the creation of a centralized training platform was the goal.

This framework allows the managers to easily apply their lesson plans and quickly distribute these lessons to staff and interns

Sustainable Small House Project, Mollie Jo George

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The Sustainable Small House Project was developed in cooperation with UNO/UNL Engineering, UNO Gerontology, and Metro Community College. This project merges both sustainable living with the small house movement to promote aging-in-place for older adults. This presentation describes the journey of Dr. Bing Chen as he envisioned the Sustainable Small House Project to its development and finally to implementation at its current location--west of Baxter Arena or adjacent to the UNO ballfield.

From a gerontological lens, the project focuses on principles of universal design which allows for aging-in-place, fall-detection and prevention using smart technologies such as Nobi, and voice-activated technologies …

Seeming Ethical Makes You Attractive: Unraveling How Ethical Perceptions Of Ai In Hiring Impacts Organizational Innovativeness And Attractiveness, Serge P. Da Motta Veiga, Maria Figueroa-Armijos, Brent B. Clark

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

More organizations use AI in the hiring process than ever before, yet the perceived ethicality of such processes seems to be mixed. With such variation in our views of AI in hiring, we need to understand how these perceptions impact the organizations that use it. In two studies, we investigate how ethical perceptions of using AI in hiring are related to perceptions of organizational attractiveness and innovativeness. Our findings indicate that ethical perceptions of using AI in hiring are positively related to perceptions of organizational attractiveness, both directly and indirectly via perceptions of organizational innovativeness, with variations depending on the …

Rogue Entrepreneurship, Russ Mcbride, Mark D. Packard, Brent B. Clark

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

We suggest a new category of “rogue entrepreneurship,” that describes entrepreneurial activity where the core business idea violates established or expert consensus, to be contrasted with “conforming entrepreneurship,” where it does not. There are large entrepreneurial rents hidden behind a bulwark of expert consensus that predicts doom for a venture based upon a rogue and unlikely claim. The “rogue” cases, where the predominant assessment context is different from the entrepreneur’s, result in broad skepticism against the entrepreneurial claim. We explain what rogue entrepreneurship is and how it works.

“What important truth do very few people agree with you on? A …

Overcoming The Challenge Of Exploration: How Decompartmentalization Of Internal Communication Enhances The Effect Of Exploration On Employee Inventive Performance, Lin Jiang, Brent B. Clark, Daniel B. Turban

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Drawing upon the notion of boundaryless organizations and upon the information processing perspective of organizational design, we investigate the decompartmentalization of internal communication as a unique organizational context that moderates the relationship between R&D employees’ exploration behaviors and their individual inventive performance. We test our hypotheses using a novel combination of survey and archival data. We find that R&D employees who explore more generate inventions that are more valuable only when in workplaces characterized by high communication decompartmentalization. Such workplaces have more frequent communication between R&D and other units, more employee mobility via cross-unit project rotations, or greater managerial support …

System And Information Qualities In Mobile Fitness Apps And Their Effects On User Behavior And Performance, Mobark Q. Aldossari, Quynh N. Nguyen, Anh Ta, Steven A. Schulz

Management Faculty Publications

Grounded in goal setting theory and other IS models, this study introduces a robust model, that examines the determinants of MFA goal setting and goal tracking use, and their impact on user behavior and achievement. The empirical results show that system quality and information quality are two key determinants of MFA goal setting and goal tracking use, which significantly influence a user’s goal achievement and behavioral change in terms of physical activities.

Decentralizing Corporate Governance? A Praxeological Inquiry, Scott L. Mitchell, Mark D. Packard, Brent B. Clark

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

The theory and practice of corporate governance has been in something of an arms race with corporate malefactors—as corporate governance mechanisms have incrementally advance, so too have the strategies of malefactors who skirt those governance practices to engage in costly misconduct. Modern centralized governance approaches appear inapt to filling the gaps caused by agency and knowledge problems. Here, we start afresh using the atypical ‘praxeological’ method to reconstruct governance theory anew from basic foundations. The resultant theory is distinctive from prevailing corporate governance theorizing in several key ways. One of the more important conclusions from our reconstructed theory is that …

Ethical Perceptions Of Ai In Hiring And Organizational Trust: The Role Of Performance Expectancy And Social Influence, Maria Figueroa-Armijos, Brent B. Clark, Serge P. Da Motta Veiga

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in hiring entails vast ethical challenges. As such, using an ethical lens to study this phenomenon is to better understand whether and how AI matters in hiring. In this paper, we examine whether ethical perceptions of using AI in the hiring process influence individuals’ trust in the organizations that use it. Building on the organizational trust model and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, we explore whether ethical perceptions are shaped by individual differences in performance expectancy and social influence and how they, in turn, impact organizational trust. We collected primary …

Distinguishing Unpredictability From Uncertainty In Entrepreneurial Action Theory, Ryan W. Angus, Mark D. Packard, Brent B. Clark

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

The traditional view that perceived and archival uncertainty measures are substitutable proxies for “true” environmental (entrepreneurial) uncertainty presumes an “all-seeing eye.” Adopting a representationalist epistemology, we distinguish environmental (objective) unpredictability from entrepreneurs’ subjective uncertainty, which has so far been theoretically confounded. It is, in fact, possible for an entrepreneur to be highly certain despite excessive unpredictability and vice versa. Theoretically distinguishing these constructs has fundamental implications for entrepreneurial action theory. For example, because intentional action is consciously originated, unpredictability influences action only indirectly, while uncertainty has direct effects. Outcomes, on the other hand, are directly affected by the complexity and …

Major League Baseball: The Meaning And Impact Of The Lockout, Derek Mclaughlin

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Major League Baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement expired after the 2021 season, which resulted in a lockout. There was an uncertainty of lost games during the lockout. After ninety-nine days an agreement was reached between Major League Baseball and the players’ union. Throughout this research, I explored what would have happened as of a result of lost games. Statistics from previous seasons suggest what could have occurred had there not been an agreement prior to the start of the season, while the new agreement suggest the motivation behind the new agreement.

Analyzation Of Audit Procedures In The Wake Of The Early 2000s Accounting Scandals, Zachary Byar

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco International were companies that operated in different industries and had different levels of net profit for decades. However, these companies had one pivotal thing in common: accounting fraud. In the early 2000s, accounting scandals from large companies created a major impact on the financial markets, causing Congress to take action to increase investor protection through the origination of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Act was meant to restore investor confidence through strengthened disclosures and auditing requirements for public corporations. However, even with the creation of this new Act from Congress, fraud is still prevalent today, …

Status Consumption And Charitable Donations: The Power Of Empowerment, Sona Klucarova, Xin He

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Status consumption, the act of consuming market offerings aimed at conferring status on the consumer, has often been portrayed as the opposite of charitable donation behavior. In a departure from prior works, this study examines the connection between these two seemingly contradictory behaviors. The results of seven studies (including one in the Supporting Information Appendix) demonstrate that status consumption, considered a self-centered behavior, leads to increased charitable donations, a prosocial outcome. This effect is driven by a process of empowerment (i.e., increase in the sense of power that consumers derive from status consumption). The underlying mechanism of empowerment is examined …

Research Productivity Of Management Faculty: Job Demands-Resources Approach, Chet E. Barney, Brent B. Clark, Serge P. Da Motta Veiga

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Purpose

The main purpose of this study was to examine which job resources are most valuable for research productivity, depending on varying teaching demands.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected from 324 management faculty at research, balanced and teaching (i.e. respectively low-, moderate- and high-teaching demands) public universities in the United States.

Findings

Results showed that no single job resource predicted research productivity across all three types of schools. At research schools (i.e. low-teaching demands), productivity was positively associated with job resources including summer compensation, level of protection for untenured faculty and number of research assistant hours, while negatively associated with travel …

Do Masks Matter? Consumer Perceptions Of Social Media Influencers Who Wear Face Masks Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sona Klucarova

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

The rapid spread of COVID-19 brought about an increased use of face masks among the general public. Focusing on disposable surgical masks in particular, this article examines consumer perceptions of and intentions toward social media influencers who wear such masks amid the pandemic. Drawing on the theory of product symbolism, this research experimentally demonstrates that masked (vs. unmasked) influencers remind consumers of highly competent healthcare professionals, leading in turn to greater competence inferences about and more favorable behavioral intentions toward these influencers. Additional analysis demonstrates that this effect might not hold for other groups of professionals who are considered relatively …

The Effects Of Political Ideology And Brand Familiarity On Conspicuous Consumption Of Fashion Products, Ganga S. Urumutta Hewage, Sona Klucarova, Laura Boman

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

From the lens of conspicuous consumption, this research examines the interactive effect of brand logo size and political ideology on consumers’ intentions toward fashion products. Specifically, in a series of four studies, we address how consumer political ideology influences intentions toward items displaying smaller, inconspicuous logos versus larger, conspicuous logos for unfamiliar and familiar brands. We show that liberal consumers are more likely to prefer a large (rather than small) logo when a brand is unfamiliar. We suggest that liberals’ greater desire for product uniqueness elevates their risk propensity, which in turn increases preference for conspicuous consumption when familiarity with …

A Financial Analysis Of Five Different Firms, Shane Sazzman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

There are several ways to analyze a business. Looking at a company’s risk position. Measuring a businesses profitability, liquidity, stock prices, bankruptcy, and leverage. Overall, using historical and current data to predict future success. This report conducts a business analysis by looking at the impact of the coronavirus for five different companies in five different industries that are in five different countries. It has looked at financial results during the periods of pre-coronavirus, throughout, and after. Through this, a financial analysis was created to look at the long-term impacts and results of the coronavirus for these five conglomerates. The companies …

The Impact Of Live Cases On Student Skill Development In Marketing Courses, Shannon Cummins, Jeff S. Johnson

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Live cases, where students work directly with an outside organization to solve real-world problems, can be an immersive learning experience for marketing students. Current scholarship on live case usage in marketing is limited to small samples from a handful of live case devotees. This article draws from a large, international sample of 169 marketing educators to investigate the perceived educational impacts of live cases on student skill development. Specifically, the paper explores student teamwork, conflict handling, time management, presentation, communication, and critical thinking skills. Additionally, the article explores how student skill development is affected by the amount of course time …

Keynes And Knight On Uncertainty: Peas In A Pod Or Chalk And Cheese?, Mark D. Packard, Per L. Bylund, Brent B. Clark

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

For many years, the ideas of Knight and Keynes have been widely understood to overlap greatly and they are presumed to have developed notions of uncertainty that deeply intersect, both describing a state where outcomes have non-probabilistic likelihoods. Furthermore, even their political philosophies are historically somewhat homogenised, both considered ‘liberals’. We critically review the historical records and writings of these key scholars with the purpose of dehomogenising their political philosophies, scientific epistemologies and their famous works on uncertainty, published in the same year—1921. We show that neither Keynes nor Knight has been considered fairly by history. Keynes, far from a …

The Oversharenting Paradox: When Frequent Parental Sharing Negatively Affects Observers’ Desire To Affiliate With Parents, Sona Klucarova, Jonathan Hasford

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Modern-day parents increasingly engage in sharing of their children’s information and photos on social media. However, when parents post about their children on social media with high frequency, the phenomenon of “oversharenting” occurs. This research explores the impact of oversharenting on others’ desire to affiliate with parents. While parents post about their children to socialize with others, three experimental studies conducted with U.S. residents recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk demonstrate that parents who oversharent are viewed as less desirable acquaintances than parents who do not. This effect is mediated by observers’ perception that oversharenting constitutes a social norm violation (Study …

Wonderfully Made In The Making: A Strategic Recommendation For Growth Opportunities, Kayley Scott

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

I was partnered with a local non-profit organization, called Wonderfully Made, to identify and solve a strategic problem they are experiencing. Wonderfully Made is focused on serving girls of color with special needs. I analyzed internal resources and weaknesses and I researched external factors that affect them. I found that Wonderfully Made needed to explore growth opportunities through a strategic alliance with a college organization, ideally an NPHC sorority at UNO. This would create a mentorship opportunity for the participants in the organization. It would also create growth with minimal time and resources needed from Wonderfully Made’s busy board. If …

A Sweet Future For Sugar Makery: A Deeper Dive Into Small Business Consulting, Samuel Lauritsen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This case study investigates a local candy store in Glenwood and Council Bluffs Iowa. Processes, consistency and concise planning promoted the rapid growth of Sugar Makery into two locations in three short years. Results from the analyses indicate that the main problem facing Sugar Makery is sustaining its differentiated strategy from new industry entrants, key recommendations to sustain its success are presented. Every company has its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The key is identifying each to be able to capitalize on competitive advantages, mitigate the damage done by weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities and create plans to avoid …

Economic And Strategic Analysis Of Minority Entrepreneurs In Omaha, Nebraska, Lizbeth Perez Hernandez

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Few resources of published studies exist identifying the needs or motivational factors that would assist minority business owners (MBOs) in Omaha, NE wishing to open a new business venture. Although MBOs have accounted for significant growth in the United States, there is not a lot of information available about how they access capital and resources to launch and grow their businesses. Findings show that MBOs continue to experience high barriers trying to find basic resources. There is evidence that proves the persistence of low minority business ownership rates and the survival of existing minority businesses is affected by social norms, …