Digital Commons Network^™

Gambling In A Fantasy World: An Exploratory Study Of Rotisserie Baseball Games, Bo Bernhard, Vince Eade

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The purpose of this article is to map the social landscape of the burgeoning fantasy baseball gaming phenomenon. This study relies upon two approaches: an analysis of the existing gambling literature to look for useful theory and research applications, and observations of fantasy baseball players to better understand their behaviors. The authors seek to provide an exploratory framework that will aid in the development of future theory and research on these phenomena.

Personal Identity And Nostalgia For The Distant Land Of Past: Legacy Tourism, Nina M. Ray, Gary Mccain

Nina M. Ray

"The past is certainly a distant land and getting there is a difficult and imperfect undertaking" (Brown, Hirschman & Maclaran (2006). This paper explores motivations behind how consumers reach that "distant land." Over 1,000 respondents of a variety of ethnic groups show very different stories and diaspora timelines, but personal identity and connection with place are always top ranked motivations for interest in ancestors. How might groups, who may suffer from a lack of identity, fit into these findings when 'personal identity' is the number one reason why consumers engage in genealogy and legacy tourism? Whether a group is well …

Summerbridge Case For Support, Summerbridge San Diego

Fundraising and Marketing

Summerbridge seeks to close the summer learning loss gap between low and high income students and encourage talented college students to consider a career in teaching.

This is their case for support.

Health Professionals’ Challenges In Managing Hiv/Aids In South Africa, Lynette Louw, Claude-Helene Mayer

Organization Management Journal

The unprecedented human immune deficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) crisis worldwide, and specifically in Africa, requires new thinking, new practices, and new research into health management. Identifying the challenges in managing HIV/AIDS from a health professional’s perspective would bring new opportunities and uncertainties to health management. Being able to use the opportunities and to better cope with the uncertainties would require a fundamental change and transformation in organizational health management, thinking, and practices. This case study presents selected research findings from a more comprehensive qualitative research study conducted in a selected health organization in South Africa. The …

Behavior Based Sales: A Study Of Behavioral Techniques For Sales Performance Improvement, Peder Henrik Seglund

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of a behavior-based sales training package on sales performance for the sales divisions of two different organizations located in separate cities in the Midwestern United States. The independent variable was a package that included: behavior-based sales training; feedback; and reinforcement. The primary dependent variable was sales performance results, which is a measure of the participants’ closing percentage. Secondary dependent variables included income, participant attendance at sales meetings, participant satisfaction, and changes in knowledge (at site 2 only).

The intervention package was implemented at each site over a course of …

Exploring The Factors Affecting The Perceived Program Quality Of International Sports Education Programs: The Case Of A Chinese Sports University, Luke Lunhua Mao, James Zhang

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

This study explored and tested factors affecting the perceived quality of international sports education provisions in the context of a Chinese sports university. Based on a comprehensive literature review, on-site observations, interviews with students and administrators, and a test of content validity by a panel of experts, a questionnaire was developed and administered to 61 international students attending a sports university in China. An exploratory factor analysis produced five factors related to perceived program quality, with 22 items retained (i.e., leaning environment, service orientation, administrative professionalism, content assurance, and academic growth). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that these program quality factors …

The Development Of A User Self-Help Knowledge Management System For Help Desk: Deployment Of Knowledge Management Approach And Software Agent Technology, Kar Yin Leung, Sim K. Lau

Dr Sim Kim Lau

Most help desks have admitted their call volume has increased in the past decade while “help unavailable when needed” is the major reason for service delivery failure and user dissatisfaction. The habit of calling help desk for simple problems has prompted the investigation of transferring part of first-level troubleshooting duty from help desk to user. This research proposes the development of user self-help knowledge management system that allows user to solve simple and routine technical enquiries. The proposed approach incorporates software agent to allow autonomous handling of enquiries so that the most appropriate solution and user communication can be facilitated.

Knowledge Management In Information Technology Help Desk: Past, Present And Future, Kar Yin Leung, Sim K. Lau

Dr Sim Kim Lau

Information technology has changed the way organizations function. This resulted in the reliance of help desks to deal with information technology related areas such as hardware, software, and telecommunication. Besides, the adoption of business process reengineering and downsizing have led to the shrinkage of the size of help desk. The shorter information technology product life cycle has worsened the situation by increasing the already sizeable help desk’s user base. Consequently, the help desk has to cover more information technology products and resolute more technical enquiries with less staff. Thus, the outcome is clear that users have to wait comparably longer …

Enhancing The Reusability Of Inter-Organizational Knowledge: An Ontology-Based Collaborative Knowledge Management Network, Joshua P. Fan, Nelson K Y Leung, Sim K. Lau

Dr Sim Kim Lau

Researchers have developed various knowledge management approaches that only focus on managing organizational knowledge. These approaches are developed in accordance with organizational KM strategies and business requirements without the concern of system interoperation. The lack of interoperability means that heterogeneous Knowledge Management Systems from different organizations are unable to communicate and integrate with one another, this results in limitation to reuse inter-organizational knowledge. Here, inter-organizational knowledge is defined as a set of explicit knowledge formalized and created by other organizations. In this research, a collaborative inter-organizational KM network is proposed to provide a platform for organizations to access and retrieve …

Enforcing European Corporate Commitments To Freedom Of Association By Legal And Industrial Action In The United States: Enforcement By Industrial Action, Lance A. Compa, Fred Feinstein

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] We believe it is important to discuss industrial action as one way to enforce commitments to abide by international labor standards in part because of the challenges of "hard" law enforcement, not only in an international context but also in the enforcement of domestic labor policies. Because of the challenges presented by "hard" enforcement of labor policy in both the domestic and international context, it is important to examine the dynamics that initially motivate the adoption of IFAs and other commitments to abide by international labor standards as an important aspect of their enforcement. What unions and other advocates …

Communicating Strategically – Talking Less, Targeting Better. Qualitative Study On Corporate Communication‘S Learning In Leading Global Companies, Lukasz M. Bocheneki, Sam Blili

UBT International Conference

Companies need to communicate strategically in order to maintain dialogue and relationships with their stakeholders. In the crowded media and social media space the messages disappear in the noise generated by multiple actors. Therefore, to be heard the enterprises need to consider their communication strategically. It is not about the amount of information, it is about right targeting and usage of the right tools and channels. Social media allowed the companies to communicate directly with their stakeholders and customers. Different channels can address different stakeholders. This study focuses on a qualitative assessment of the learning patterns and profiles among 60 …

Lleap 2012 Survey Report : Schools, Not-For-Profits, Philanthropic Foundations And Trusts In Australia : Building Knowledge To Maximise The Impact Of Philanthropy In Education, Michelle Anderson, Emma Curtin

Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy (LLEAP)

LLEAP – Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy began because of a widespread view that effective engagement of philanthropy in education was hampered, in many cases unnecessarily, by gaps in knowledge, understanding and ways of doing things better. LLEAP explores issues from the perspectives of philanthropic education grant making foundations and trusts, schools, and not-for-profits working with schools. One key part of LLEAP is a national annual survey.

In 2012, the LLEAP Survey received a total of 507 responses from 359 school (Government 69%; Independent 20%; Catholic 11%, from every state and territory), 87 not-for-profit and 61 philanthropic foundation or …

Perception Of African Youth On Personal Computer Utilization: The Case Of Ethiopia And Rwanda, S. Negash

Faculty and Research Publications

The tendency to pursue innovativeness and adopt new technologies has been found more likely with younger individuals and a strong relationship between attitude and personal computer (PC) utilization has been found. However, research in these areas is mainly focused on high-income countries. Do these findings hold for low-income countries? What are the perceptions of African youth on the factors that impact PC use? There is a dearth of micro-level studies that promote understanding about the behavior of individuals in low-income countries. This study looked at demographic data including age, gender, grade level, region, and prior experience among 228 youth from …

A Prolegomenon To The Relation Between Accounting, Language And Ethics, Cecil E. Arrington

Ed Arrington

This essay outlines the preliminary structure of a moral ontology of accounting understood as discourse. To speak of an ontology of accounting is to speak of the most general features of accounting, those features of its existence that are present irrespective of variations in observed “accountings,” of ways in which accounting manifests itself in lived experience. To speak of a moral ontology is to construe those general features as products of human choices and actions which follow from axiological (value-based) commitments to pursue the good and just life, however that life might be understood, and indeed understood differently by different …

Empires Of The Mind: Cross Cultural Cooperative Business Education, Keith Duncan, Simone Kelly, Raymond Mcnamara

Ray McNamara

This paper explores current trends in knowledge growth and decay, globalization, technology and education. Business education in the new millennium is shaped by these trends. This contextual backdrop raises both educational and business issues which are explored with exemplars from a successful cross-cultural blended MBA program. The educational issues considered include educational relevance, lifelong learning objectives, education vs. training, needs of the target audience, what is the language of instruction, as well as issues of assessment and outcome measurement. The business issues include a fair return to all parties, responsibilities, management and communication systems and dispute resolution. In a globalized, …

Empires Of The Mind: Cross Cultural Cooperative Business Education, Keith Duncan, Simone Kelly, Raymond Mcnamara

Simone Kelly

This paper explores current trends in knowledge growth and decay, globalization, technology and education. Business education in the new millennium is shaped by these trends. This contextual backdrop raises both educational and business issues which are explored with exemplars from a successful cross-cultural blended MBA program. The educational issues considered include educational relevance, lifelong learning objectives, education vs. training, needs of the target audience, what is the language of instruction, as well as issues of assessment and outcome measurement. The business issues include a fair return to all parties, responsibilities, management and communication systems and dispute resolution. In a globalized, …

Intelligent Shelter Allotment For Emergency Evacuation Planning: A Case Study Of Makkah, Kwangsoo Yang, Faizan Ur Rehman, Hatim Lahza, Saleh Basalamah, Shashi Shekhar, Arif Ghafoor

Cyber Center Technical Reports

Given maps of an evacuee population, shelter destinations and a transportation
network, the goal of intelligent shelter allotment (ISA) is to assign routes, exits and shelters to evacuees for quick and safe evacuation. ISA is societally important due to emergency planning and response applications in context of hazards such as floods, terrorism, fire, etc. ISA is challenging due to conflicts between movements of evacuee-groups heading to different shelters and transportation-network choke-points. State of the practice based on Nearest Exit or Shelter (NES) paradigm addresses the former challenge but not the latter one leading to load-imbalance and slow evacuation. Recent computational …

Istanbul’S Current Status And Potential For Becoming An International Financial Centre, Hasmet Sarigul

Hasmet Sarigul

The Turkish government has been pursuing a goal to turn Istanbul into a regional centre for finance and then, an international one. However, creating an international financial centre where international demand and supply of funds meet is not an easy process. In this context, we aimed to examine the current status and the potential of Istanbul to become an international financial centre. In order to reach the aim of the study, firstly, the characteristics of an international financial centre have been explained and a brief overview of the Turkish government’s official plans of development of the international financial centre have …

The Impact Of National Institutional Context On Social Practices: Comparing Finnish And Us Business Communities, Jill M. Purdy, Elizabeth A. Alexander, Stern Neill

Elizabeth Alexander

This paper investigates the impact of national institutional contexts on firms' socially responsible practices, the motives for such practices and methods of organising social practices. Surveys of firms in a liberal market economy (USA) and those in a coordinated market economy (Finland) are compared. Findings indicate that social practices differ between the contexts, providing empirical support for the theory of explicit and implicit forms of corporate social responsibility. The paper offers insight into how social practices are organised in different contexts and a new conceptualisation of the motives for social responsibility. Results suggest that national institutional context should be accounted …

Taking An Active Approach In Entrepreneurial Mentoring Programs Geared Toward Immigrants, Francine K. Schlosser, Myra Tawfik

Odette School of Business Publications

Immigrants face significant challenges that impair their ability to access resources that can develop their entrepreneurial potential. Using an action research and case-based approach, we highlight the challenges experienced by immigrant entrepreneurs and in turn discuss practical measures to resolve these challenges through mentoring programmes for nascent entrepreneurs. We profile a unique multi-disciplinary programme involving both business and law students who coordinate and deliver workshops for course credit. Established entrepreneurs and professionals also volunteer their time as mentors. We develop a balanced scorecard to assess and improve the programme. Study results provide a model to enable universities and others to …

Communicating Analytic Results: A Tutorial For Decision Consultants, Jeffrey Keisler, Patrick Noonan

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

Good analysis alone may not achieve the goals of decision analysis (DA) engagements. Good communication of the results of that analysis can help stakeholders understand, accept, and implement the recommended course of action. Practitioners can use decision analytic principles when considering the decision of how to communicate results themselves. From this perspective, we consider a range of questions to ask in preparing for communication with the client and other stakeholders. We review standard communication practices in DA engagements. The standard practice can be improved by drawing on insights from other areas of management practice. Decision analysis has both technical and …

Personal Identity And Nostalgia For The Distant Land Of Past: Legacy Tourism, Nina M. Ray, Gary Mccain

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

"The past is certainly a distant land and getting there is a difficult and imperfect undertaking" (Brown, Hirschman & Maclaran (2006). This paper explores motivations behind how consumers reach that "distant land." Over 1,000 respondents of a variety of ethnic groups show very different stories and diaspora timelines, but personal identity and connection with place are always top ranked motivations for interest in ancestors. How might groups, who may suffer from a lack of identity, fit into these findings when 'personal identity' is the number one reason why consumers engage in genealogy and legacy tourism? Whether a group is well …

Communicating Analytic Results: A Tutorial For Decision Consultants, Jeffrey Keisler, Patrick Noonan

Jeffrey Keisler

Good analysis alone may not achieve the goals of decision analysis (DA) engagements. Good communication of the results of that analysis can help stakeholders understand, accept, and implement the recommended course of action. Practitioners can use decision analytic principles when considering the decision of how to communicate results themselves. From this perspective, we consider a range of questions to ask in preparing for communication with the client and other stakeholders. We review standard communication practices in DA engagements. The standard practice can be improved by drawing on insights from other areas of management practice. Decision analysis has both technical and …

A Different Smile, A Different Story: Global Advertising Adaptation For Chinese, Lin Shengdong, Paul Van Den Hoven

Paul van den Hoven

In the early 20th century (as well as today), global brands tend to adapt their global advertisements for Chinese consumers. A corpus of USA ads and Chinese ads for global brands of the early 20th century shows that ads originating in USA are seldom used without alterations for the Chinese market. However, the ads made in the USA do commonly serve as templates for the Chinese ad design. In these cases, there are usually more substantial adaptations than a mere ‘translation’ of verbal parts. A corpus of such obviously ‘paired’ advertisements enables us to study the ‘construction’ of the Chinese …

Determination Of Consumer Context In An Online Transaction Process For A High Risk Purchase, Robert G. Grant, Rodney J. Clarke, Elias Kyriazis

Robert Grant

This paper showcases/discusses a method of analyzing consumer website behavior that enables real-time purchase context identification. Such analysis will enable online vendors to serve content that is relevant to the consumer’s needs, addressing the apparent utility deficit that websites have for complex product transactions. The use of communication theory is a key component of a value co-creation process that leverages the data derived from website interactivity by analyzing the meaning of consumer activity on a website. Such an approach offers insights into the effect of information accessed by consumers in real time, enabling a responsive system for serving information in …

Performing And Agential Selves: Employees As Targets Of Control, And How We, As Academics, Theorise About Them, Karin H. Garrety, Simon Down

Karin Garrety

Critical management scholars have noted how contemporary management practices encourage and sometimes require workers to adopt multiple identities, and that cynicism, irony and resistance are often manifested in those identities. In this paper, we explore some attributes of modern selfhood that make these positions possible. We concentrate on two related aspects: (1) the capacity of people to reflect on, and manipulate, the selves that they present to the world, and (2) different forms of agency that actors can effect. We argue that closer attention to these attributes can sharpen our analyses of organisational control and its impacts on the self.

The Flow Of New Doctorates, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] As noted by Bowen and Sosa, their projections of the supply side of the academic labor market, which are typical of those used in other studies, are based on a number of simplifying assumptions. Similarly, their proposed policy remedies to increase the flow of new doctorates, such as increasing financial support for graduate students and shortening the time it takes students to receive degrees, are made presenting only scanty evidence on the likely magnitude of supply responses to these changes. This essay, which draws heavily from my study (Ehrenberg 1991), reviews the academic literature and available data (from a …

Academic Labor Supply, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] The plan of this study is as follows. In the remainder of this chapter, some background data are presented on the academic labor market and new Ph.D. production in the United States. Chapter 7 describes a schematic model of academic labor supply and indicates the underlying trends since 1970 in a number of variables that contribute to projections of shortages of faculty. In Chapter 8, a general model of occupational choice and the decision to undertake and complete graduate study is sketched. This framework, available data, and the prior academic literature are then used to address students' choice of …

A Note On Questionnaire Developement: Knock-Outs And Benchmarking, Edward J. Lusk, Moncef B, Michael Halperin

Edward J. Lusk

No abstract provided.

Message From General Chair And Program Co-Chairs [Of Icec '12, 14th Annual International Conference On Electronic Commerce, Held In Singapore, 7-8 August 2012], Robert J. Kauffman, Martin Bichler, Hoong Chuin Lau, Christopher Yang, Yinping Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Singapore, a major hub in the Asia Pacific region well known for its multi-racial and multicultural society, is proud to host the 14th International Conference on Electronic Commerce. Singapore Management University (SMU), the School of Information Systems (SIS) and the Living Analytics Research Center (LARC) are also delighted to be able to support the delivery of this event.