Business Commons^™

Immigrant Entrepreneurs And The Contingent Value Of Personal Legitimacy, Kurian George

Dissertations - ALL

Despite growing recognition of the importance of the founder’s personal legitimacy for successful venturing, various questions remain with respect to what founder legitimacy is and how it is achieved. My review of the legitimacy literature reveals that founder legitimacy can be conceptualized as both a characteristic and a process, and that the entity signaling the founder’s legitimacy can be the founder, an organization, or even an industry or region. My review also shows that the expertise needed for founder legitimacy is taken for granted in most studies. To develop a better understanding of how founders acquire and signal personal legitimacy, …

Essays On Supply Chain Optimization: Operational Decisions With Corporate Social Responsibility Implementation And Live-Streaming Channel Introduction, Haiying Yang

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation, we study a supplier's operational decisions for supply chain optimization considering corporate social responsibility implementation and live- streaming channel introduction. Both essays start from analytical models that are inspired by observations, and we explore how different parameters affect the supplier's decisions through extensive numerical studies. In the first essay, we notice that cost auditing is becoming an increasingly important tool to improve supply chain efficiency and mitigate the influence of information asymmetry. We study how cost auditing indirectly influences retailer and supplier's behavior in social responsibility. We also discuss the potential negative social responsibility externalities of conducting …

Research Brief: "Military Ceos", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study found that firms run by CEOs who have served in the military have lower investment and Research and Development (R&D) expenditures. In practice, firms and organizations should consider hiring chief executive officers (CEOs) with military experience if they are looking for “change agents” who will create an ethical, effective, and team-oriented organizational culture. In policy, the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Labor (DoL), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) might partner to ensure that material on business leadership, human resource management in the civilian sector, and business ethics are integrated into program offerings, including TAP. Suggestions …

Profit Shifting And Manipulation, Byron Dela Rosa

Honors Capstone Projects - All

As of late, many U.S. firms have made their way overseas in ways many feel are unethical. U.S. multinationals have taken note of the unimaginable domestic corporate income tax rate the United States has set for these U.S. corporations. Similar to an individual paycheck you may receive, you must pay a portion to the U.S. government in taxes. And even more similarly, you wish that you did not have to pay it either. U.S. multinationals have the same mindset, as they have found ways to avoid the corporate income tax through foreign activity strategies. Using scholarly research papers and well-renown …

Paper 2: Revisiting The Business Case For Hiring A Veteran: A Strategy For Cultivating Competitive Advantage, J. Michael Haynie

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This paper responds to recent dialogue on measuring companies’ return on investment (ROI) for their veteran hiring programs. It also cautions industry leaders against fixating on any single or generalized benchmark for their veteran hiring programs.

Paper 1: Work After Service: Developing Workforce Readiness And Veteran Talent For The Future, Deborah A. Bradbard, Nicholas Armstrong, Rosalinda Maury

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This paper covers several related topics such as: Understanding how the concept of workforce readiness applies to transitioning service members and veterans; examining interactions between career preferences, job matching, performance, and retention; exploring the links between financial readiness, spouse employment, and workforce readiness; and employer perspectives on workforce readiness and key factors and practices that influence retention and job satisfaction among veteran employees.

Does Regulatory Scrutiny Change Investment Behavior? Evidence Of Suboptimal Portfolio Rebalancing After The Financial Crisis, Willie Dion Reddic

Business Administration - Dissertations

Insurers that show losses are expected to sell tax-free securities and replace them with taxable securities since they can no longer benefit from tax savings. However, rebalancing these portfolios after the financial crisis would entail recognizing additional losses during a time period when their financial performance was under stress and their industry was under increased scrutiny. I examine portfolio rebalancing behavior using the period after the financial crisis as a proxy for increased regulatory scrutiny. I predict and find that insurers with losses subsequent to the financial crisis were less likely to increase their ratio of taxable/nontaxable securities. Insurers may …

The Struggle For Power And Pay: Implications Of Board Of Directors' Power On Monitoring Effectiveness And Pay For Performance Sensitivity, Mariana Judith Lebron

Business Administration - Dissertations

Boards of directors monitor and incentivize CEOs to make decisions that maximize shareholder value; however, research has been inconsistent in identifying the relationship between board composition and monitoring effectiveness (Daily, Johnson, Ellstrand, & Dalton, 1998). Integrating an economic perspective (agency theory) with a socio-psychological perspective (upper echelon theory), this paper examines how outsiders' and insiders' power bases relate to pay-for-performance by proposing and empirically examining a multi-dimensional model of board power bases: ownership, prestige, and structural. I argue that board structural and composition characteristics can be used as proxy indicators of board power. Using data from 37, 066 directors of …

Off-Price Vs. Department Store Retailing, Denise Aghion

Honors Capstone Projects - All

There are multiple forms of retailing in the United States – two of the most common forms are department store retailing and off-price retailing. Both types of retailers are looking to create profits by negotiating costs with vendors to create suitable gross margins; however, they go about doing so in very different ways. Because I have interned at both types of corporations, my Capstone is to identify which, if either model, is more sustainable in today’s conditions.

Department store retailing is the most well-known form of retailing, and is currently the largest sector of retailing in the United States. They …

Helping Child Workers: How Should Multinational Corporations Accommodate Child Workers In Southeast Asian Countries To Which They Outsource?, Ryan (Haerim) Hong

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Outsourcing is one of the major supply chain strategies adopted by many multinational corporations in order to respond to market demand by lowering the cost. As the emphasis on social responsibility and sustainability has been increasing, there has been a lot of pressure on firms to control many problems caused by different living conditions or cultures. One of the most significant humanitarian issues is ongoing child labor practices. This paper describes how corporations, such as Nike, Reebok, Wal-Mart and the Pentland Group, have been addressing this issue. Many of them have been eliminating child labor among their suppliers; however, that …

Small Audit Firms And Earnings Manipulations, Huichi Huang

Business Administration - Dissertations

This paper examines the monitoring role of small audit firms (i.e., those with 100 or fewer clients who are subject to different levels of oversight by the PCAOB) on earnings management. Specifically, I examine the relationship between earnings manipulations and the use of small audit firms. I find that small audit firms are less able to constrain managers' opportunistic use of discretionary accruals. However I find no evidence that small audit firms are associated with real activities manipulation. By investigating a specific group of audit firms that are the smallest in the audit market, this study extends our understanding of …

The R&D Boundaries Of The Firm And The Governance Of R&D Alliances: Essays On Institutions, Strategic Considerations And Contract Structure, Jason Michael Pattit

Management - Dissertations

The three essays in this dissertation examine questions related to the R&D boundaries of the firm and the governance of R&D alliances. The first essay draws on institutional theory to examine the history of corporate R&D in the U.S. since the mid-19th century. Formal and informal institutional rules and constraints are shown to play a role in the initial rise of markets for technology in the 19th century, their decline during the early-20th century, and their eventual return at the end of the 20th century. The influence of formal and informal institutions on the adoption of in-house R&D labs in …

Does Corporate Governance Influence Misstatement Disclosure Timeliness?, Rapheal Joseph Hamilton

Business Administration - Dissertations

The relationship between corporate governance and firm disclosure for firms in crisis, specifically firms in violation of GAAP, may differ from the relationship demonstrated in prior literature between governance and voluntary disclosure. An emerging stream of disclosure literature assumes that the relationship between corporate governance and misstatement disclosure choices mirror that found in prior voluntary disclosure literature though no study has empirically demonstrated that a similar relationship exists. Using a sample of 302 accounting irregularities disclosed between 2000 and 2006, I investigate the role of corporate governance, including both internal and external mechanisms, in influencing misstatement disclosure timeliness. I provide …

Essays On Product Acquisition For Value Recovery, Dwayne D. Cole

Business Administration - Dissertations

This dissertation studies decision problems facing the manufacturer that offers cash incentive to encourage a fraction of its install base to return end-of-use devices. Marketing managers often use such tactics as a promotion tool to motivate sales of new products. Supply chain managers often use such tactics to obtain used products for profitable recovery operations. The first essay, "Product Acquisition for Remanufacturing: A Dynamic Analysis," analyzes the performance of buyback and trade-in policies for acquiring products to be remanufactured. A key distinguishing feature of this analysis is the consideration of time dynamics. In particular, both the quantity-condition profile of used …

An Organizational Analysis Of Independent Record Labels, Daniel Creahan

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In this thesis, I will investigate the work structures and day-to-day operational analysis of independent record labels (“indies”) from across the United States and UK. These findings will then be applied to my personal experiences running an independent record label in Syracuse, New York as a way to evaluate our own operations.

My research constitutes a combination of scholarly studies and personal interviews with 9 different labels, studying work hierarchies, communication methods, office layout, artist interaction, creative disputes, and customer interaction.

In general, indies embrace flexibility, a pragmatic approach to costs and strategy, and a relatively informal power structure, alongside …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Large Shareholders And Commitment Human Resource Systems, Frank Mullins

Business Administration - Dissertations

Commitment human resource systems (CHRS) are used to elicit an employee's long-term commitment to the firm, and research has shown that CHRS are positively associated with firm performance. Yet, firms appear reluctant to use these HR systems. Large shareholders such as institutional investors and founding family owners have been found to influence the strategic decision making of the firm, yet they have been largely absent from the strategic human resource management literature. This is unfortunate given the strong influence that large shareholders can exert on firms. Thus, this study examines the relationship between large shareholders such as institutional investors and …

Sport Sovereignty At Bay: The Impact Of Globalization And The Multi-National Sport Enterprise On The Westphalian-Based International Sport Structure, Rick Burton, Matthew Robinson, Emir Turam

Falk College Research Center

The existing framework for international sport is based on the guiding principles of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. The Peace of Westphalia promoted sovereignty, self-determination, equality between states, and non-intervention of one state in the internal affairs of another state, and it has served as the basis for international relations for several centuries. Vernon observed that “the advanced world, carried ebulliently on the crest of a technological revolution in transportation and communication, has absentmindedly set up a virile system of international institutions and relationships that sit alongside the system of nation-states.” Vernon’s observation captures the essence of the existing …

Innovation In Academic Institutions: How A Pharmaceutical Company Capitalizes On University Connections In Its Board Of Directors, Ryan Fannon

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This study attempts to identify the types of pharmaceutical companies that utilize university employees as directors on their boards and if in fact having university connections on a pharmaceutical board impacts company performance. Board-level data from 2009 and firm-level data from 2008 was gathered for 109 pharmaceutical companies that varied greatly in size and geographic location. The key findings of this study were that the larger the pharmaceutical company and the greater the R&D expense of that company the more likely the company would have university connections on its board of directors; the larger the company, the better the universities …

Trusts Versus Corporations: An Empirical Analysis Of Competing Organizational Forms, A. Joseph Warburton

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This paper studies the effects of organizational form on managerial behavior and firm performance, from an empirical perspective. Managers of trusts are subject to stricter fiduciary responsibilities than managers of corporations. This paper examines the ramifications empirically, by exploiting data generated by a change in British regulations in the 1990s that allowed mutual funds to organize as either a trust or a corporation. I find evidence that trust law is effective in curtailing opportunistic behavior, as trust managers charge significantly lower fees than their observationally equivalent corporate counterparts. Trust managers also incur lower risk. However, evidence suggests that trust managers …

Information Ecology And Knowledge Management: Toward Knowledge Ecology For Hypertubulent Organizational Environments, Yogesh Malhotra

Management - All Scholarship

The traditional view of organizational systems and supporting information and knowledge systems is based on the model of a well-oiled machine expected to deliver optimum performance derived from pre-defined parameters and specifications. Such systems consider performance as a derivative of external controls defined by the designers of the systems and have given marginal importance to the self-adaptive and emergent nature of human and organizational systems. These characteristics of human and organizational systems are particularly relevant to their adaptation and survival within dynamically changing business environments. Recently, some management thinkers have attempted to address the human bases of information systems within …

Labor Scheduling With Employee Turnover And Absenteeism, Fred F. Easton, John C. Goodale

Management - All Scholarship

Most labor staffing and scheduling models presume that all employees scheduled for duty reliably report for work at the beginning of their shift. For industries with even moderate turnover or absenteeism, this assumption may be quite costly. We present a profit-oriented labor scheduling model that accounts for the day-to-day flux of employees and capacity induced by voluntary resignations, new hires, experience curves, and absenteeism. The proposed model also anticipates revenue losses due to reneging by customers whose patience decays exponentially with queue time. Our computational studies suggest that firms with comparatively high transaction volumes, long transaction times, and/or relatively tight …

Option-Based Management Of Technology Investment Risk, Michel Benaroch

Management - All Scholarship

Real operating (flexibility) options embedded in a technology investment are valuable because they allow management to take rational, value-adding actions that could favorably affect operational traits of the investment (timing, scale, scope, etc.). These options, however, are not inherent in technology investments. Rather, they usually must be carefully planned and designed to fit each investment differently. Building on concepts from the area of financial risk management, this paper presents a methodology for planning the creation of specific operating options designed to maximize the value of a technology investment in light of the risks underlying that investment. The paper also illustrates …

Tools For Inventing Organizations: Toward A Handbook Of Organizational Processes, Thomas W. Malone, Kevin Crowston, Jintae Lee, Brian Pentland, Chrysanthos Dellarocas

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This paper reports on the first five years of work in a project to address these problems by (1) developing methodologies and software tools for representing and codifying organizational processes at varying levels of abstraction, and (2) collecting, organizing, and analyzing numerous examples of how different groups and companies perform similar functions. The result of this work is an on-line "process handbook" which can be used to help people: (1) redesign existing business processes, (2) invent new processes (especially those that take advantage of information technology), and (3) organize and share knowledge about organizational practices. We also expect this process …

Controlling The Complexity Of Investment Decisions Using Qualitative Reasoning Techniques, Michel Benaroch, Vasant Dhar

Management - All Scholarship

Assembling financial instruments such as equities, bonds, options, and other derivatives into a portfolio requires a thorough understanding of how the portfolio will behave in response to changes of specific economic variables and parameters of the instruments. With more information about a more diverse set of instruments becoming available to traders, it is becoming important to limit the complexity of the analysis involved. We show how this complexity can be limited by using qualitative analysis, where the objective is to construct a few good vehicles which can then be analyzed quantitatively. We illustrate how two qualitative reasoning techniques -- qualitative …

Estra Credit: Tqm Comes To Campus: The Student As Customer And King, Robert Hill

Syracuse University Magazine

No abstract provided.