Business Commons^™

Green Delivery: A New Approach For The Arbor Day Foundation, Cassandra Arritt, Vincent Malene, Anthony Hare, Sarah Schilling, David Petersen, Ross Grieb

Honors Theses

The Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) will partner with online retailers to create a ‘Green-Delivery’ option wherein customers can opt to delay the shipment of their order by a day in exchange for a tree being planted in their name. Each partner would fulfill their donation obligation to the ADF by allocating a portion of the cost savings generated by shipping their orders via a slower service.

Google Ads: A Strategic Audit, Jessee Zhang

Honors Theses

Google began as an internet search product, allowing users to find relevant sites based on a search query. Over the past several decades, Google has become an extremely large and profitable business though online digital advertisements. While Google has a diverse product mix, the overwhelming majority of its revenue is generated through ads. This strategic audit first looks at the current external environment, looking at the political, economic, social, and technological changes and opportunities relevant to the industry. Then, it looks at the current competitive environment and shows the profitability of the business because of the large barrier to entry. …

Review Of “Dreammakers: Innovating For The Greater Good” By Michele Hunt, Dreammakers (Dreammakers.Org), Sang M. Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This is an inspiring book about DreamMakers, those individuals and organizations that have the audacity to rethink, redesign, and co-create a new world view of doing well by doing good. These dream makers aspire to reset the workings of the world to alleviate major ills and problems that societies face today. To understand and appreciate this book fully, we need to know about the author.

Michele Hunt is an extraordinarily successful lady with colorful professional background. Upon graduation from college (BA in Sociology from Eastern Michigan University and MA in Sociology from University of Detroit), she worked for 9 years …

7 Tips To Grow Your Rural Business With Purpose And Meaning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this article is to help rural entrepreneurs discover ways to grow their businesses with Living with Purpose and Meaning Megatrend.

Become A Future-Focused Leader: Use Three Megatrends To Grow Your Rural Business, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. This article discusses three megatrends shaping the future of rural businesses:

1) The Rise of the #GigEconomy

2) Living with Purpose and Meaning

3) The Decentralized Marketplace

The article also provides coaching tips for rural entrepreneurs on how to use megatrends to grow their businesses.

While many companies are struggling to keep up with the rapid rate of change, …

Quality Management And Innovation: New Insights On A Structural Contingency Framework, Dara Schniederjans, Marc Schniederjans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

With increasing market competition, organizations are striving for greater innovation in products and services. Quality management has the potential to invigorate an organization’s product, process and administrative innovation when strategically aligned with internal contingencies. This paper seeks to address the relationship between social and technical quality management with innovation. Moreover, this paper empirically assesses contingency factors including organization size, task and managerial ethics which play roles in moderating the relationship between quality management and innovation. Based on an empirical study we find social quality management practices, not technical quality management practices, are positively associated with innovation. We also find a …

Ownership Structure, Absorptive Capacity, And Innovation: Planting Vs Harvesting Innovation, Seung Hoon Jang

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation investigates the main research question: Which classification of innovation explains the heterogeneous timing of revenue realization? Given the significance of financial gain, researchers are recommended to pay attention to whether innovation outcomes result in commercial gains in the short term. Following this notion, a new category of innovation, planting and harvesting, is presented. While harvesting innovation seeks new resources in the expectation of commercial performance in the short term, planting innovation pursues potential resources creating value over a long time period. The interest in the determinants and financial contribution of these types of innovation leads to the second …

A Tale Of Two Paradigms: The Impact Of Psychological Capital And Reinforcing Feedback On Problem Solving And Innovation, Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef, Shannon L. Rawski

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study drew from two distinct paradigms: the social cognitively based emerging field of positive organizational behavior or POB and the more established behaviorally based area of organizational behavior modification or OB Mod. The intent was to show that both can contribute to complex challenges facing today’s organizations. Using a quasi-experimental research design (N = 1,526 working adults), in general both the recently recognized core construct of psychological capital (representing POB) and reinforcing feedback (representing OB Mod), especially when partially mediated through a mastery-oriented mindset, were positively related to problem solving performance, reported innovation, and subsequent psychological capital. The implications …

Coaching Leaders: Co-Creating Purpose Based Innovation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

The purpose of the presentation was to demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of coaching leaders in today's global economy. Leadership coaching has the potential to co-create innovation in organizations of all sizes. Three case studies were shared. In each example, Dr. Connie presented the effectiveness of her coaching program. Each case study demonstrated the power of leadership and innovation on the economy, society and individual.

Entrepreneurial Leadership And Teamwork: The Key To Innovation In The 21st Century, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Susan N. Williams

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Entrepreneurial leadership and continuous innovation are vital components of 21st century communities and organizations. Entrepreneurial leaders must realize the importance of environmental, social and global issues while creating an atmosphere of innovation designed to help followers become more entrepreneurial themselves.

Entrepreneurial individuals and teams have the ability to recognize and capitalize on opportunities, innovate, take risks, adapt to rapid change and marshal resources to achieve their goals. When individuals come together as an effective team, they can produce a synergy to meet the demands of a rapidly changing and competitive work environment. Therefore, entrepreneurial leaders must develop entrepreneurial individuals and …