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Boardroom Cultural Governance: An Examination Of The Beliefs And Values Of Board Directors And Executive Management In U.S. Based Multinational Corporations (Mncs), Marianne G. Fortuna

Business Administration Dissertations

In the evolving global economy, boardroom governance has forged an increasing influence on what transpires in corporations today. Within the boardroom, expectations of board directors and executive management (key actors) have shifted dramatically due to the financial failures (i.e., Enron and WorldCom, etc.) and the ensuing global financial crisis in the 2000s. The belief is that these directors and managers contributed greatly to these crises (Boerner, 2011). Consequently, there is a growing appeal to study boardroom governance and the roles of board directors and executive managers, not from a structural description, but rather from a behavioral perspective. In the literature, …

Is Your Brand Going Out Of Fashion? A Quantitative, Causal Study Designed To Harness The Web For Early Indicators Of Brand Value, Maureen S. Cole

Business Administration Dissertations

Can Internet search query data be a relevant predictor of financial measures of brand value? Can Internet search query data enrich existing financial measures of brand valuation tools and provide more timely insights to brand managers? Along with the financial based motivation to estimate the value of a brand for accounting purposes, marketers desire to show “accountability” of marketing activity and respond to the customer’s perception of the brand quickly to maintain their competitive advantage and value. The usefulness of the “consumer information processing” framework for brand, consumer and firm forecasting is examined. To develop our hypotheses, we draw from …

The Fair Trade Coffee Business Model’S Affect On The Small Scale Producers Through The Lens Of The Triple Bottom Line, Joseph Krupka

Business Administration Dissertations

The aim of this study is to understand the Fair Trade Coffee Business Model by determining how the Fair Trade Coffee Business Model affects the livelihoods of the small scale producers in developing countries. The Fair Trade Coffee Business Model is driven by the mission to improve the well-being of the small scale producers located in developing countries through the lens of the Triple Bottom Line (economic, social and environment). What is the significance of fair trade coffee to the economies of developing countries that produce coffee? The economies are considerably impacted by coffee production as coffee ranks as the …

Path Building In Emerging Entrepreneurial Firms: An Investigation Of Networks In The Making, Juliana Iarossi

Business Administration Dissertations

Underpinning economic growth is the emergence of entrepreneurial ventures with the potential to grow that boost job creation and provide new sources of products for mature companies. The critical role associated with new firms, underscores the importance of understanding how entrepreneurship unfolds. Network-based research, while leading the way to rich empirical studies provides a limited understanding of how entrepreneurial networks are built and their impact on the emergence of a new venture. Employing a multiple case study design and a perspective based on organizational path building, three young technology ventures were investigated in terms of the formation of networks around …

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 …

Real Estate Decision-Making: An Actor Network Theory Analysis Of Four, Small Charitable Organizations, Louis J. Grabowski

Business Administration Dissertations

This in-depth exploratory case study examines the real estate decision-making processes in four small, charitable organizations through the lens of Actor Network Theory (ANT). While decision-makers in these cases followed logical pathways and criteria in searching for and evaluating alternatives, this investigation also found these processes were often lengthy, complex, bounded rational, and political. The analysis looked at the relative roles played by various internal and external actors (including influential non-human actors such as feasibility studies, renderings, budgets, and plans) and the resulting fragile, but acceptable outcomes. From the presented engaged scholarship, practical implications emerged that can aid nonprofit managers …

An Adapted Model For Small Business Innovation Networks: The Case Of An Emergent Wine Region In Southern California, Jeanette Kay Miller

Business Administration Dissertations

Small businesses and small business networks have become increasingly important over the past two decades. However, limited empirical research has been carried out on the interactions of these small businesses, specifically within supportive networks. This research focuses on the interaction of firms and organizations within a successful small business innovation network, and how innovative business practices are developed. Innovation network theory was used as a lens to view the dynamics within an innovation network comprised entirely of small businesses and organizations. For this research, a qualitative case study was undertaken, with an emergent wine region in Southern California targeted as …

Open Source In The Clouds - How Organizational Ambidexterity Shapes And Is Shaped By Disruptive Innovation In An Open Source Software Provider, Alexander M. Heublein

Business Administration Dissertations

How do incumbent firms effectively respond to disruptive innovations? The extant literature shows that incumbent firms, while often excelling at incremental innovation, usually fare poorly in the face of disruptive innovation. Even firms that have been the direct beneficiaries of disruptive innovations in the past can fall prey to more agile competitors during these periods of upheaval. Organizational Ambidexterity – the idea of striking the right balance between the exploitation of existing resources and the exploration of new capabilities – can be used as a theoretical framework to investigate how firms adapt and change in the face of disruptive innovation. …

An Experiment On The Effect Of Construal Level And Small Wins Framing On Environmental Sustainability Goal Commitment, James O'Connor

Business Administration Dissertations

Companies are under increasing pressure from every category of stakeholder, from government and community to supply chain and consumer, to improve the environmental sustainability of their operations, products and services. To be most successful with environmental sustainability improvement initiatives, a company must have the commitment and effort of its employees. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of the company’s approach to the initiative on the level of employee commitment to the company’s environmental sustainability goals.

This research was conducted with a two-factor, factorial experiment. The experimental factors were construal level and small wins framing. Each of …

Smartphone Apps On The Mobile Web: An Exploratory Case Study Of Business Models, Caroline Morgan Ford

Business Administration Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the business strategies of a firm seeking to develop and profitably market a mobile smartphone application to understand how small, digital entrepreneurships may build sustainable business models given substantial market barriers. Through a detailed examination of one firm’s process to try to commercialize their mobile app, we identify various business model decisions and marketing strategy approaches that hindered the company’s efforts. The case study describes two distinctly different business models adopted in succession, as well as the various adjustments the firm makes to its target market, distribution and pricing approach that led …

Social Network Theory In Inter-Organizational Alliances: An Exploratory Examination Of Mobile Payments Engagement, Deborah D. Hazzard-Robinson

Business Administration Dissertations

Fueled by ubiquitous access to mobile phones, and a massive population of nearly 3 billion unbanked people around the globe, mobile commerce is evolving as a disruptive technology. Simultaneously, mobile payments are surfacing as a killer application within the mobile commerce context (Hu et al. 2008). Undeniably, the proliferation of wireless mobile technology provides much-needed access to vital information, and financial services for disenfranchised, unbanked populations. In addition, technological innovations offer first-time opportunities for suppliers of goods and services in a market context to gain competitive advantages while enhancing their economic viability. According to Portio Research, the volume of mobile …

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 …

The Effect Of Organizational Knowledge Creation On Firm Performance: An Operational Capabilities-Mediated Model, Michael S. Jordan

Business Administration Dissertations

What operational factors can explain the performance differences between manufacturing firms? Scholars have produced a significant volume of research that examines the linkages between operational factors (resources and practices) and firm performance. There is agreement that organizational capabilities mediate the relationship between operational factors and firm performance. However, due to the numerous and sometimes contradictory definitions of organizational capabilities in the literature and because organizational capabilities includes non-operational factors, it has been suggested that operational capabilities, as a sub construct of organizational capabilities, is more appropriate for establishing an empirical relationship between operational factors and firm performance. Scholars have argued …