Digital Commons Network^™

Diversified Institutional Ownership And Firm Innovation, Yen-Lin Huang

Finance Dissertations

In this paper, I investigate the impact of diversified institutional ownership on firm innovation. I find that innovation productivity improves along with an increase in ownership by diversified institutions. This result is supported by a natural experiment design based on financial institution mergers. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that information complementarity drives the higher innovation productivity of firms held by institutional investors with diversified portfolios.

Feeling The Heat? Fear Of Failure And Performance, Alberto Chong, Marco Chong

CSLF Working Papers

Using a new, objective measure, we study the role of fear of failure in performance and find that it is positively linked with the latter, a finding that tends to contradict the conventional wisdom in both psychology and behavioral economics. We use individual data from the nationally syndicated television show MasterChef for the years 2010 to 2020 and exploit situations in which contestants are on the verge of being dropped from competition. Using ordinary least squares, we show that extreme fear of failure is associated with an increase of two to four positions in the final placement of the competition.

Educational Leadership In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Matthew Tyson

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

Programs that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming more and more prevalent in classrooms throughout the world. As this technology becomes more available and affordable, school administrators are going to have to decide whether or not these types of programs make sense for their schools. It is essential that school administrators educate themselves about the different types of AI programs available to them, as well as the effects they may have on the education of their students. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of educational professionals currently employed in positions of school leadership who have implemented …

Dynamic Capabilities In Microfinance Innovation: A Case Study Of The Grameen Foundation, Sarah Kayongo

Business Administration Dissertations

Dynamic Capabilities in Microfinance Innovation: A Case Study of The Grameen Foundation

by

Sarah Elizabeth Kayongo

May 2020

Chair: Lars Mathiassen

Major Academic Unit: Executive Doctorate in Business

The purpose of this research is to understand how microfinance organizations innovate their products, services, and processes to improve financial inclusion. The research approach used is a retrospective, longitudinal, qualitative case study (Yin, 2014) of how Grameen Foundation, a global non-government organization that partners with various microfinance institutions to provide micro loans, savings, and other financial and professional services innovated. Applying Dynamic Capability Theory (Teece, 1997, 2012 & 2014) highlighted the unique …

Factors Affecting Leaders’ Adoption Of Innovation: The Case Of Digital Ticketing In The High School Athletic Space, Armin Marquez, Beth Cianfrone, Timothy Kellison

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

In an environment where technologies continuously evolve, we must seek to understand how sport professionals evaluate innovation. The purpose of this study is to identify critical factors influencing sport organization leaders’ decisions to adopt a technological innovation as the best strategy to gain efficiencies. We explore the factors influencing sport managers’ evaluation of technological innovations— prior conditions (i.e., need identification and individual innovativeness), perceived characteristics of the technology (i.e., relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability), and situational constructs (i.e., trust and cost)— and the effect they have on leaders’ decisions to adopt or reject a given tool. The context …

Drivers Of Success To Effective Entrepreneurship: A Comparison Of Immigrant And Native-Born Perceptions, Irina Kozlovski

Business Administration Dissertations

The literature indicates that only a few studies have compared immigrant and non-immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States. The present study addresses this gap by inquiring how these populations perceive drivers of success. I employed an in-depth, multi-case analysis of immigrant and nonimmigrant entrepreneurs operating in the United States. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews. Adaptive comparative causal maps (CCMs), which are qualitative methodological tools, were used to illustrate similarities and differences between the groups.

I identified 155 drivers of success. I ascertained connections, deviations, and causal linkages as well as portrayed overlaps and divergences in the groups’ perspectives regarding …

How Does Learning Lead To Innovativeness, Internationalization And Success Of Entrepreneurial Ventures? ? Evidence From China?S High Technology Industry, Jingting Liu

Marketing Dissertations

In this dissertation research project, we try to unravel the black box of learning by entrepreneurial ventures with two fundamental learning dimensions: learning extensity and learning ambidexterity. Learning extensity represents how extensively the entrepreneurial ventures engage in market learning, technology learning, social-network learning and cross-market learning. Learning ambidexterity represents the balance between exploitative and exploratory learning. Through an online survey, we give entrepreneurial ventures a comprehensive exam on their learning with quantified measurement. Concerning the determinants of learning characteristics, we explore a variety of task-related prior experience of the core entrepreneurial team. We found that education and work experience are …

Emergent Disciplines And Cultural Divisions: Melvin Kranzberg's "Laws Of Technology" And New Humanities, Matthew Sansbury

English Theses

Dating back to the dialectic between Socrates and Plato, innovative technologies have disrupted the traditions of discourse and created cultural divisions relevant to composition studies. These conversations are echoed in the Twentieth Century through the work of Melvin Kranzberg. Looking to the future, he sought to record the history of technology to maintain the constant upsurge of innovation. Like Kranzberg’s history of technology, the field of rhetoric and composition and this thesis seek to define technology and understand its value in order to navigate and interrogate effectively the deluge of twenty-first-century new media. Kranzberg—like many scholars in computers and composition—utilized …

Critical Success Factors Of Technological Innovation And Diffusion In Higher Education, Terry Dennison

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

This case study surveyed faculty members and information technology (IT) leaders within the State System of Higher Education (SSHE) and at Southern Regional State University (SRSU) to examine their perceptions of technological innovation, adoption, and diffusion in higher education. The data gathered identified seventeen critical success factors affecting technological innovation, adoption, and diffusion and was used to evaluate how the perceptions faculty compared to those of IT leaders within a single university setting. Examining and comparing the perceptions of these two groups provided insight into elements influencing technological innovation efforts. This insight may be beneficial for enhancing future endeavors and …

Service Innovation In A Voluntary Organization: Creating Work Opportunities For Severely Developmentally Disabled Adults, Cathy Sue Neher

Business Administration Dissertations

Current literature on the developmentally disabled indicates they represent a large untapped labor pool that is significantly inhibited in its inclusion in the community. To address this unnecessary isolation, Right in the Community (RitC), a voluntary agency in Cobb County, Georgia, wanted to innovate its service offering by providing meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) offers a dynamic and robust theoretical framework that has been adapted to explain many business factors in addition to organizational effectiveness. Based on a fourteen-month action research engagement at RitC, I adapted the CVF …

Predicting Purchase Timing, Brand Choice And Purchase Amount Of Firm Adoption Of Radically Innovative Information Technology: A Business To Business Empirical Analysis, Timothy R. Bohling

Business Administration Dissertations

Knowing what to sell, when to sell, and to whom to sell is essential buyer behavior insight to allocate scarce marketing resources efficiently and effectively. Applying the theory of relationship marketing (Morgan and Hunt 1994), this study seeks to investigate the link between commitment and trust and firm adoption of radically innovative information technology (IT). The construct of radical innovation is operationalized through the use of cloud computing. A review of the vast scholarly literature on radical innovation diffusion and adoption, and modeling techniques used to analyze buyer behavior is followed by empirical estimation of each of the radical innovation …

Sustaining China’S Economic Growth: New Leaders, New Directions?, Penelope B. Prime

International Business Faculty Publications

An American specialist on the economy of China assesses the options and obstacles the country's new leadership will face as it attempts to sustain the current economic growth trajectory in the future. Putting the current situation in historical context, the author first reviews the reforms leading up to the agenda advanced by the previous leadership team (led by Hu Jintao) and then examines the health of China's economy in late 2012 (a situation she argues is characterized by the exhaustion of three key drivers of growth). The paper advances the thesis that further reforms and improvements in technology will be …

Uses And Nonuses Of Patented Inventions, Taehyun Jung

Public Management and Policy Dissertations

Innovation comprises the processes of invention and commercialization. While the importance of innovation, especially commercialization, has been widely recognized, existing studies have largely overlooked the commercialization process. By examining the determinants of uses and nonuses of patented inventions from firms at the levels of technology, organization, and project/invention, this study attempts to help fill a critical gap in the literature. In doing so, it enriches theoretical understandings of innovation and, in particular, builds on the evolutionary explanation of technology development, the Teecian framework on profiting from innovation, Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), the Knowledge-Based View (KBV), and open innovation and innovation …

A Study To Develop Strategies For Proactive Water-Loss Management, Hyun Jung Park

Public Management and Policy Dissertations

Water conservation is one of the important policy concerns. However, most water conservation practices have focused primarily on reducing use by customers. Since a large amount of water lost in supply systems causes water providers to lose money, resources, and reliability, and the current passive approach cannot deal with water losses effectively, a proactive approach is necessary for water-loss management. The goal of this study is to help policymakers and water utilities develop strategies that proactively solve water losses. To develop strategies for water-loss management, it is essential to identify key factors that determine the level of water losses as …

Exploring Social Issues And Value Systems In Contemporary Art Education, Charlotte Turner

Art and Design Theses

The purpose of the study was to field test a unit of lessons in which students explore how a variety of social issues and value systems impact the meaning expressed in their artwork. By exposing students to different systems of belief, their historical contexts, and providing opportunities for students to discuss, research and symbolically express meaning I hope to develop critical thinking skills; promote increase in the social conscience of teenagers; help students develop critical thinking skills; promote student active involvement in their community at large; encourage social activism; and help students become part of the larger global community. The …