Digital Commons Network^™

Not On The Menu: Customer Sexual Harassment In The Restaurant Industry, Fernanda Wolburg Martinez

Dissertations and Theses

Despite the high prevalence of customer sexual harassment (CSH) paired with a high turnover in the restaurant industry, there have been few suggestions on resources that may attenuate the effect that bystander and direct CSH might have on strain--anxiety and depressive symptoms--and turnover intentions among restaurant workers. Based on the stipulations of the job-demands resources theory and the empowerment framework, the current study frames direct and bystander CSH as job demands that may be linked to employee strain and turnover intentions. Moreover, CSH preventive supervisor behaviors and organizational intolerance towards CSH are introduced as job resources that may weaken the …

The Radical Relationality Of Complex Partnerships: Community-Member Experiences In Critical Community-Based Learning, Amie Riley

Dissertations and Theses

Through a radical relationality within the social-ecological systems that sustain us, critical community-based learning (CBL) in higher education offers a praxis for engaging the demanding pedagogical and community challenges we face. When CBL is implemented as both a critical and sustainability pedagogy, as a strategy for social change, the relationships created by CBL partnerships have the potential to generate transformational outcomes for all partnership agents. Using a critical complexity theoretical framework, a bricolage of complexity science and critical theory, this critical qualitative study sought to understand the systemic patterns and behaviors of a community-based learning partnership by elevating community-member voices. …

Secondary Features Of Importance For A Url Ranking, Atajan Abdyyev

Dissertations and Theses

This paper investigates the impact of secondary ranking factors on webpage relevance and rankings in the context of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), focusing on the jewelry domain within the United States e-commerce market. By generating a keyword list related to jewelry and retrieving top URLs from Google's search results, the study employs machine learning models including XGBoost, CatBoost, and Linear Regression to identify key features influencing webpage relevance and rankings.The findings highlight specific optimal ranges for features like Outlinks, Unique Inlinks, Flesch Reading Ease Score, and others, indicating their significant impact on better rankings. Notably, Random Forest model performed best …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Innovation Ecosystems In Facilitating The Adoption Of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Dana Sami Bakry

Dissertations and Theses

Sustainable entrepreneurship has a substantial role of a steadily growing economy and advanced industrial economies. Several strategies have been formed and employed to support the adoption of innovation and technologies in the sustainable entrepreneurship sector. However, the successful outcome of these strategies in achieving their goals depends on how effective they are in satisfying their objectives and thus increasing innovation adoption. One measurement for effectiveness of ecosystem implements can be their support to the input of the process of innovation and technologies adoption and their impact on satisfying regional goals.

The objective of this research is evaluating the effectiveness of …

Diversity In Recruitment: The Role Of Realistic Website Job Previews For Racial And Ethnic Minority Applicants, Jennifer Saucedo

Dissertations and Theses

Prior research has examined the effects of diversity-related recruitment on racial and ethnic minority applicants, but less research has focused on how objective and realistic information about diversity influences applicant outcomes. Drawing from previous literature on realistic job previews (RJPs) and social identity theory (SIT), the current study investigates how recruitment material with objective racial demographic information (i.e., percentage of racial minorities employed) and leader diversity testimonials (i.e., positive or realistic) on diversity recruitment webpages affect racial and ethnic minority applicant outcomes (i.e., organizational attraction, sense of fit, and organizational trust) using a 3x2 between-person experimental design. Finally, the study …

Organizational Readiness Assessment For Fraud Detection And Prevention: Case Of Airlines Sector And Electronic Payment, Sultan Ayed Alghamdi

Dissertations and Theses

Payment processing systems have advanced significantly in the airline business. Because e-payments are easy, they have captured the attention of many companies in the aviation industry and are quickly becoming the dominant means of payment. However, as technology advances, fraud grows at a comparable rate. Over the years, there has been a surge in payment fraud incidents in the airline sector, reducing the platform's trustworthiness. Despite attempts to eliminate e-payment fraud, decision-makers lack the technical expertise required to use the finest fraud detection and prevention assessments; this research recognizes the lack of an established decision model as a hurdle and …

Why So Serious? Using The Belongingness Need Tenet From The Self-Determination Theory To Examine Workplace Humor And Its Outcomes, Katharine Lucille Mcmahon

Dissertations and Theses

The small body of literature for workplace humor remains fragmented due to the lack of coherence in conceptualization and theory. Furthermore, the distinction between positive and negative humor adds complexity to predicting the outcomes of humor. Focusing on the foundation aspect of humor as a form of social play provides guidance on choosing a theory-informed integrative framework that could explain the implications of humor in the workplace. The belongingness need tenet of the self-determination theory offers a promising framework to synthesize existing research and to direct future studies. Paper 1 reviews the literature and concludes with an integrative framework suggesting …

Information, Communication, And Technology In Developing Countries: The Impediment To Nigeria Economic Growth, Fatima Ali Muhammed

Dissertations and Theses

Technological revolution has shifted the world to a post-industrial society as information communication and technology (ICT) govern the centrality of human interaction. ICT has become widely influential at all levels of life, especially socially and economically.

In the 21st century, innovative technologies have become a crucial element of accelerating all factors of production to deliver rapid and effective results in every sector of the economy. The Internet, as a component of ICT, has become the global computing network that facilitates the access, analysis and dissemination of infinite information rapidly using advanced technology.

Policy makers, researchers, business leaders, academics are all …

Correlation Of Motivations To View Facebook Video Advertisements With Willingness To View Future Advertisements, Mokhlisur Rahman

Dissertations and Theses

Most people are familiar with the concept of Facebook video ads. Facebook offers enormous features to place in-feed video ads to promote products. An online survey was conducted at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota. The survey looked for user motivations for viewing Facebook video ads. The conceptual framework for this study was chosen as the Uses and Gratifications Theory. Drawing on the UGT, the study uses a previously established and supported scale used in previous uses and gratification studies to measure the correlation among results. All the participants in this study were university students. The study …

Adaptation To Sport Retirement In Division I Student-Athletes, Andrea Cota Powell

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation utilizes a mixed-methods design to explore adaptation to sport retirement among Division I student-athletes. Sport retirement is a major life transition that can elicit changes in support systems, identity crises, and feelings of loss, failure, and grief. Transitioning out of sport is a phenomenon that over 90% of collegiate student-athletes experience when their four years of NCAA eligibility expires. It is a phenomenon that all athletes experience at some point in their lives. To transition out of sports, one must adapt to post-sport life. Study one of this dissertation explored the phenomenon of occupational retirement through concept analysis …

Factors Influencing Hard Running Distances In Ncaa Division I Female Soccer Players, Isaac A. Sam

Dissertations and Theses

As the total distances covered in soccer games have remained relatively constant, the hard running distances covered by players have shown varying changes due to the higher physical demands and dynamics of team running performances. Although factors affecting the total distances covered in a match are multifactorial, no study has specifically examined match performance indicators (MPI) that impact hard running distances (HRD). Consequently, the purpose of this study was to better understand how MPI (hard running efforts, turnovers, minutes played, duels won, duels lost, and pass completions) are associated with HRDs and to investigate how each variable contributes to HRDs …

An Assessment Model Of The Healthcare Entrepreneurship Ecosystem To Foster Solutions For Underserved Communities, Abdalilah Saleh Owaishiz

Dissertations and Theses

There are significant disparities in access to healthcare treatment and this study investigates the healthcare entrepreneurship ecosystem and the challenges and considerations associated within. There is a lack of research on how to evaluate and assess the healthcare entrepreneurship ecosystem especially when applying multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) has been utilized to identify several perspectives and factors grouped under them by the expert’s quantification. This research concentrates on underserved communities because that is where the biggest needs and impact can be made to support achieving health equity and universal health coverage. The findings of this research …

The Role Of Spiritual Formation In Leadership Development, Craig M. Poole

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Planning And Real-Time Resource Allocation In Freight Logistics Systems Utilizing Emerging Transportation Technologies, Darshan Rajesh Chauhan

Dissertations and Theses

Transportation is a key driver of any national economy. In the United States, the transportation sector contributes $1.3 trillion to the economy, of which freight transportation represents more than 50%. Trucks alone account for more than 70% freight movements in the United States. In addition to worsening stress at ports of entry and traffic congestion in the system, freight also accounts for nearly one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Emerging transportation technologies like electric unmanned aerial vehicles (or drones) and electric vehicles can provide a more sustainable alternative to combat greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the …

Clarifying And Measuring Inclusive Leadership, Kelly Mason Hamilton

Dissertations and Theses

Many organizations view diversity as a strategic business priority that provides important benefits such as increased creativity and innovation. Research indicates, however, that the potential benefits of diversity cannot be realized without employees feeling a sense of inclusion, which involves feeling like one belongs and can be themselves at work. Although scholars acknowledge the important role managers play in fostering inclusion, there remains limited research on specific behaviors they can enact to foster inclusion perceptions in their work groups. Additionally, there is a lack of agreement in the literature about the scope of "inclusive leadership." Historically, scholars viewed inclusive leadership …

Scenario Acceleration Through Automated Modelling: A Method And System For Creating Traceable Quantitative Future Scenarios Based On Fcm System Modeling And Natural Language Processing, Christopher W.H. Davis

Dissertations and Theses

Scenario planning is used extensively in strategic planning because it helps leaders broaden their perspectives and make better decisions by presenting possible futures in story form. Some of the benefits of using scenarios include breaking away from groupthink, creating better products, acceleration of organization learning and reducing bias. Product development teams, particularly for digital products, are gaining more autonomy in organizations and tend to manage risk by undergoing very short development iterations on their products while leaning on their consumers for feedback -- a process known as agile development. This method tends to limit the perspective of the team and …

Developing An Assessment Model For Entrepreneurship Ecosystems Using Hierarchical Decision Model: Case Study Of Riyadh City, Mustafa Kamal Almuzel

Dissertations and Theses

Entrepreneurship is one of the major drivers of economies. Countries that aim to improve their economies by increasing entrepreneurial activities and its effectiveness need to develop an effective entrepreneurship ecosystem. This ecosystem combines a set of domains and factors that create a healthy environment for entrepreneurs. The analysis shows that there is limited research about structured assessment methods to evaluate the entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Therefore, this research objective is to introduce a universal assessment model that can be adopted in different cities for implementing an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem. This will be achieved by addressing three main research questions. 1) What are …

Maturity Model For Customer-Centric Approach In Enterprise: The Case Of E-Commerce And Online Retail Industry, Soheil Zarrin

Dissertations and Theses

The network technologies are changing the dynamics of the interaction between customer and provider. Customers demand closer relationships and higher investment between partners, as well as cooperation between companies to build supporting technologies for their unique needs. Customer-centricity is defined as interaction with the customer through various touchpoints and aggregating these relations to create a position for the customer. Each Customer has a different need and expectation from the provider or seller, and companies need to be flexible enough to fulfill their needs. One of the reasons organizations invest less in customer experience is that they believe they are already …

The Application Of Design Thinking On Evaluating A User Self-Service Data Analytics/Science Platform, Aheeka Pattnaik

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is aimed at utilising design thinking and the first half of the double diamond framework to i) set-up a research and select the appropriate participants, ii) gather requirements and define user personas from those eligible participants, and then iii) define the framework for evaluating a user self-service data analytics/science platform. Derived from the author’s own experiences, both as a Business Analyst (BA) and Citizen Data Scientist, with no-, low-, and code-based data analytics and science platforms are being implemented for enabling user self-service analytics – for users who are completely new to the space of data analysis and …

The Longitudinal Effects Of A Family And Sleep Supportive Intervention On Service Member Anger And Resilience, Shalene Joyce Allen

Dissertations and Theses

The vast majority of workplace intervention research on employee anger and resilience primarily focuses on individual-level strategies for mitigating employee anger and resilience outcomes in the workplace, with no studies having examined these outcomes with tangible occupational health interventions utilizing organizational-level techniques. Thus, the current study extends the literature on how to provide improvements in employee anger and resilience using higher system and organizational change mechanisms by providing evidence-based support for the effectiveness of a Total Worker Health® intervention, referred to as the Family and Sleep Supportive Intervention Training (FaSST). This approach employs both health protection and health promotion strategies …

The Revenue Operations (Revops) Framework: A Qualitative Study Of Industry Practitioners., Oliviero Mottola

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years Revenue Operations or RevOps has emerged in professional circles as a new approach to manage Sales, Marketing and Customer Success teams in the context of b2b sales. In practitioner circles, RevOps definitions range from the increased collaboration of the three job functions to an all-out creation of job function within organizations. While the subject of interdepartmental alignment has been covered extensively in academia (albeit not exhaustively), RevOps as a term and set of practices has received no attention and industry practitioners struggle to find a unified set of best practices that isn’t coming from organizations trying to …

Perceived Value Of Technology Product Features By Crowdfunding Backers: The Case Of 3d Printing Technology On Kickstarter Platform, Nina Chaichi

Dissertations and Theses

Crowdfunding is an activity that gathers funds by drawing on a relatively small contribution from a relatively large number of individuals using the internet. One of the crowdfunding purposes is to fund entrepreneurial ventures. Modern crowdfunding activities--that utilize the internet--go back to 1997 and gained popularity in the music and video community. However, the most common platforms for entrepreneurial activities, including Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, have been established as recently as 2008. Thus the understanding of crowdfunding's dynamic is in its infancy.

Crowdfunding has been studied from various perspectives, primarily focusing on the factors that increase the platform's participation and determinants …

Technology Management Maturity Assessment Model In Healthcare, Amir Shaygan

Dissertations and Theses

Significant gaps in the practical transformation of clinical knowledge into practices, increasing healthcare costs, costly medical errors, healthcare institutions' obligations towards improving safety, clinical outcomes, and efficacy of care from one side; and the rise of disruptive innovations, the adoption of electronic health records and novel diagnostic tools, and the plethora of data from the other side has made the need for a new approach in managing the U.S healthcare systems an imperative. Continuous learning has been utilized to mitigate some of these issues have been in healthcare organizations. Continuous learning is especially important in the research centers that act …

Assessment Of The Blockchain Technology Adoption For The Management Of The Electronic Health Record Systems, Saeed Mohammed Alzahrani

Dissertations and Theses

Blockchain is an emerging technology that holds great promises in healthcare despite slow adoption and previous unsuccessful implementation projects. Blockchain adoption in healthcare has been slow, partly because healthcare is a heavily regulated and complex industry. Blockchain applications span various areas of healthcare such as patient data management, health information exchange, health supply chain management, financial and insurance claims, clinical trial, biomedical devices tracking, and pharmaceutical counterfeit. The main challenges with blockchain technology in healthcare are: scarcity of real applications, the high level of failing projects, and the need for various parties to function together. There is, however, a lack …

Challenges To Adopting Hybrid Methodology: Addressing Organizational Culture And Change Control Problems In Enterprise It Infrastructure Projects, Harishankar Krishnakumar

Dissertations and Theses

IT infrastructure projects have long been an overlooked field superseded by the more popular software development silos and cross-functional project teams when it comes to enterprise Agile transformations. This paper presents a systematic literature review by leveraging a qualitative research methodology based on empirical evidence provided in contemporary scholarly research articles to explore how certain variables such as organizational culture- including team structure, leadership hierarchy, geolocation, etc. along with an organization’s change management processes affect the adoption of a Hybrid/Agile project management methodology, focusing on reported challenges and critical success factors that define such large-scale enterprise transformations. The salient features …

The Difficulty With Introducing Project Management Techniques In Digital Startups, Isabela Mantilla

Dissertations and Theses

Digital startups face complex issues when it comes to accurately using project management techniques because of the startup’s scarcity of resources and the governance of projects , such as having different stages of growth and development. Since project management is needed in almost all businesses, dealing with this problem is important to improve the growth of startups and their organizational issues. Because of the correlation between startups using traditional project management techniques and their problems with implementing project management, this traditional model might not be relevant for startups. Startups seem to require more flexible and quick solutions to project management, …

Trailblazing Transformation: Pioneering Transformative Peacebuilding In Academic Labor Conflicts, Sam Frazier Hediger

Dissertations and Theses

Unionized contingent faculty in the United States face an increasingly difficult economic landscape in their labor-management conflicts with university administrations. These unions, comprised of graduate student employees and adjunct instructors, won significant victories for their members but have failed to shift the broader patterns of casualization, unsustainable compensation, and job precarity, stemming from the systemic debasement of higher education institutions and the American labor movement, both of which pose significant challenges to conventional conflict resolution strategies. To find a path forward, this thesis explores the nature and possibility of transforming of the academic labor conflict, using a transformative peacebuilding approach …

Exploring The Factors Influencing Big Data Technology Acceptance, Mohammad Nayemur Rahman

Dissertations and Theses

The success of new technology depends on user acceptance. Therefore, discovering the antecedents of technology use is pivotal to overcoming the lack of user acceptance in the field of technology adoption. Factors of critical technological capability, in particular, are overlooked and largely neglected in the literature. Accordingly, the body of literature on the field of technology adoption is inconclusive as to which technological capability factors influence technology acceptance.

Big Data has received great attention in academic literature and industry papers. Most of the experiments and studies focused on publishing results of big data technologies development, machine learning algorithms, and data …

A Market Diffusion Potential (Mdp) Assessment Model For Residential Energy Efficient (Ee) Technologies In The U.S., Momtaj Khanam

Dissertations and Theses

The Diffusion of Residential Energy Efficient (EE) Technologies has been studied for many years. Finding ways to bridge the energy efficiency gap and increase the diffusion of these technologies have been of much interest to researchers and practitioners alike. However, in most studies, diffusion is equated to adoption of EE technologies by consumers. The present study tries to break this mindset and develops a model to assess the diffusion of residential EE technologies from the market's perspective. The model assesses diffusion of an EE technology based on the market's ability to provide benefits to customers that are identified to be …

An Assessment Of The Decision-Making Units' Efficiency In Service Systems, Maoloud Yakhlif Dabab

Dissertations and Theses

Most tools and models of performance and quality of service management are generic and do not solve complex technical systems. The critical components of the system need such tools to assess their efficiency to make a better decision about them. One of the primary objectives in the service systems is to improve the ability of efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of critical assets. One of the challenges with improving critical assets is the amount of major capital spending needed to upgrade a technology infrastructure with a high obsolescence rate. This along with usage and reliability issues, makes evaluating mobile cells to …