Business Commons^™

Negotiating Development: Valuation Of A Guesthouse Project In Southern Guinea-Bissau1, Brandon D. Lundy

Faculty and Research Publications

This paper provides a case study illustrating the crossroads between the agendas of international/national economic development with that of the development objectives of local communities. It shows how a community development project connects villagers to the larger world – both practically and imaginatively. This study takes a single case, the process of developing a guesthouse building project among the Nalú of southern Guinea-Bissau, to illustrate how a local attempt to connect to the outside world is intersected by community relations, NGOs, and development discourse. Through a community study using ethnographic methodology including participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, the village …

An Identification And Evaluation Of Information Security And Assurance Research Outlets, Michael Whitman, Humayun Zafar, Herbert J. Mattord

Faculty and Research Publications

The purpose of this study is to identify and comparatively assess the quality of information security specific publishing venues. Past studies in information systems and computer science have shown that information security-focused research can be published in mainstream information systems- and computer science-centric periodicals; however no studies to date have been found that specifically compared venues focused primarily on information security. Therefore the results of this study, when combined with assessments of publishing venues from those disciplines, can provide a more comprehensive perspective on publishing opportunities for academic authors in information security. Faculty members seeking research recognition should strive to …

How To Increase Tourism In The Republic Of Georgia?, Kamal Fatehi, Murat Doral

Faculty and Research Publications

The Georgian economy is based on open trade and capitalistic growth model centered on free flow of goods and services and capital. This free market environment is complemented by a democratic political system which renders the status of Georgia as a modern "market-democracy" in the global economic and political order. Georgia is one of a handful of countries which was able to transition successfully from a centrally planned economy into a market based system and from one party communism into a multi-party democracy through the well-known "rose revolution". Georgia, like other emerging economies, has the long-term goal of raising the …

A Summary Of Ten Years Of Pcaob Research: What Have We Learned, John Abernathy, Michael Barnes, Chad Stefaniak

Faculty and Research Publications

For the past 10 years, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has operated as an independent overseer of public company audits. Over 70 percent of PCAOB studies have been published since 2010, evidencing the increasing relevance of PCAOB-related research in recent years. Our paper reviews the existing literature on the PCAOB's four primary functions – registration, standard-setting, inspections, and enforcement. In particular, we examine PCAOB registration trends and evaluate the effects of PCAOB registration requirements on the issuer audit market, as well as discuss the relative costs and benefits (e.g., auditor behavior changes, improvements in audit quality, auditor perceptions) …

Cross-Generational Perspectives On Work-Life Balance And Its Impact, D. Roebuck, D. N. Smith, T. El Haddaoui

Faculty and Research Publications

This qualitative study focuses on how women of three different generations, Generation Y, Generation X and Baby Boomers, view the concept of work-life balance and what relationship these views have to their attainment of workplace leadership positions. Work-life balance was defined differently across the three generations, but the generational lines faded as most women reported struggling with finding a balance. Some women conveyed choosing not to pursue high-level leadership positions as the personal cost was too high. Those who had obtained high-level leadership positions shared what types of support were most effective in helping them juggle personal and professional obligations. …

Integrating The Core: A New Management Curriculum To Empower Our Students, D. Moodie, D. Brawley, S. Campbell, R. Desman

Faculty and Research Publications

This paper follows Kennesaw State University's (KSU) faculty journal in developing a new integrated core curriculum for their Management majors that will empower the students and meet the needs of today's employers. Curriculums must change to stay current. Depending on the amount of change, this can be a huge undertaking for a department ensconced in an existing curriculum paradigm, and can be met with resistance. In this paper we look for answers to: 1) Why is the change necessary? 2) What are we changing to? We will follow up with some thoughts about 3) how will we make these changes?

Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, And Sustainability Education In Aacsb Undergraduate And Graduate Marketing Curricula: A Benchmark Study, Jeananne Nicholls, Joseph F. Hair, Charles B. Ragland, Kurt E. Schimmel

Faculty and Research Publications

AACSB International advocates integration of ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability in all business school disciplines. This study provides an overview of the implementation of these three topics in teaching initiatives and assessment in business schools accredited by AACSB International. Since no comprehensive studies have been conducted for the marketing area, the results provide benchmarks as well as thought-provoking material to initiate business school and marketing faculty discussions on integrating the three topics into their curricula.

Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimation Of Multivariate Diffusions, Xiao Huang

Faculty and Research Publications

This paper introduces quasi-maximum likelihood estimator for multivariate diffusions based on discrete observations. A numerical solution to the stochastic differential equation is obtained by higher order Wagner-Platen approximation and it is used to derive the first two conditional moments. Monte Carlo simulation shows that the proposed method has good finite sample property for both normal and non-normal diffusions. In an application of estimating stochastic volatility models, we find evidence of closeness between the CEV model and the GARCH stochastic volatility model. This finding supports the discrete time GARCH modeling of market volatility.

Culture Determines Business Models: Analyzing Home Depot's Failure Case In China For International Retailers From A Communication Perspective, May Hongmei Gao

Faculty and Research Publications

This article is a result of a longitudinal case study regarding Home Depot's operation in China. From 2006 to 2011, the author conducted 37 in-depth interviews with Home Depot executives, managers, lawyers, employees, suppliers, and consumers, as well as its Western and Chinese competitors. These interviews generated 500+ pages of transcripts and field notes. Home Depot entered China in 2006 by acquiring 12 stores from a Chinese company, Home Way. However, by September 2012 all Home Depot stores in China had been closed.

This interview-based single-case-study research has these notable contributions. First, this research stresses the importance of host culture …

Dry Port Development In China: Motivations And Challenges, Q. Zeng, M. Maloni, Jomon Paul, Z. Yang

Faculty and Research Publications

As coastal production costs in China rise, producers are moving inland to remain competitive with other Asian countries. As a result, Chinese sea ports are rapidly developing dry (i.e., inland) ports to compete for hinterland access. Yet the growing body of research examining dry ports has yet to analyze China. This article fills this gap by combining practitioner interviews, publicly available data, and industry and academic literature to provide an overview of dry ports in China. The article discusses the recent active development of dry ports in China and summarizes the existing dry port network. Motivations for further dry port …

An Investigation Of College Students’ Learning Styles In The Us And China, G. Q. Zhan, D. Moodie, Yanmin Sun, Bailing Wang

Faculty and Research Publications

This research project explores learning styles of college students in the US and China. The Grasha-Reichmann Student Learning Style Scale, designed to measure how college students view their learning, was used as the main instrument for the current study. A total of 511 college students, 274 from the US and 237 from China, participated in this study. Results indicate that there are significant differences between the Chinese and American students in their reported learning styles, but not necessarily in the direction of conventional prediction. For example, the Chinese participants scored higher on the independent and competitive subscales than the American …

Optimal Allocation Of Resources In Airport Security: Profiling Vs. Screening, Aniruddha Bagchi

Faculty and Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Sales Manager Support: Fostering Emotional Health, Motivation And Customer-Orientation In Salespeople, Elyria Kemp, Aberdeen Leila Borders, Joe M. Ricks

Faculty and Research Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of sales manager support in promoting the subjective well-being of salespeople as well as the function of the sales manager in cultivating positive, motivating and productive environments. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory assessment of the relationship between sales manager support and emotional health in salespeople was conducted by interviewing sales professionals from diverse industries. The insight offered from these individuals, in conjunction with prior literature, provided the basis for the development of a conceptual model that elucidates the impact of sales manager support on the emotional well-being of salespeople …

An Exploratory Study Of The State Of United States Women In Leadership, D. N. Smith, D. Roebuck, M. Maendler

Faculty and Research Publications

The overarching goals of this study were to explore the views of women in leadership and their opinions as to who and what strategies have most helped them develop as leaders. To explore these topics, the authors admistered a survey and used NVivo 9 and axial and selective coding to analyze the results. Two themes emerged from the data; 1) United States women leaders value action over vision, and 2) they seek to be leaders in all areas of their lives, not just at work. Encouragingly, other women and workplaces are noted as contriubuting to the women’s leadership development. The …

The Influence Of R&D Investment And Dividend Payment Tax Incentives On Corporate Dividend Policy, Mary Catherine Cleaveland

Faculty and Research Publications

Although much research on corporate dividend policy exists, the evidence is far from conclusive. Understanding how dividend taxes affect firm-level decisions is crucial to evaluating dividend imputation credits which provide shareholder-level tax credits for dividends received or decreased shareholder-level dividend tax rates, which reduce the double taxation of dividends. Using changes in New Zealand and Australia's tax regimes, this paper provides new insight into the corporate dividend policy views. The results support the double taxation and tax irrelevance corporate dividend policy views in dividend-paying firms operating in a tax regime with dividend imputation and capital gains taxes. By documenting a …

Quality Is Becoming More About Taste And Less About Cost: Eeg And Survey Study On Consumer Behavior, Charnetta Brown, Adriane Randolph, Janee Burkhalter

Faculty and Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Faculty Usage Of Social Media And Mobile Devices: Analysis Of Advantages And Concerns, D. Roebuck, S. Siha, R. L. Bell

Faculty and Research Publications

This study seeks to understand the perceptions of professors using social media (also called Web 2.0 tools) in the classroom, what kinds of mobile devices are used to access the social media used, and what drives individuals to use them. In addition, it seeks to identify the advantages and concerns faculty has with the use of social media for classroom instruction. Two-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) procedure was used to ascertain whether differences existed between two dependent variables and (a) gender, (b) different academic ranks, and (c) gender *rank to determine if there are any interaction effects between genders …

The Quandary Of Assessing Faculty Performance, K. Fatehi, M. Sharifi, J. Herbert

Faculty and Research Publications

Many educators assert that the continued use of student ratings of teaching effectiveness does not improve learning in the long run. However, administrators continue to use student opinions regarding teaching effectiveness because of its convenience and the quantitative nature of the measurement. Reducing a very complex phenomenon to a very simple numeral has its appeal. In this paper we discuss a related aspect of teaching assessment, namely the variations of skills among instructors and the students’ response to the same. In doing so, we suggest pragmatic guidelines to university administrators for evaluating various levels of skills and performance.

A Cross-Functional Systems Project In An Is Capstone Course, M. Maloni, P. Dembla, J. A. Swaim

Faculty and Research Publications

Information systems (IS) practitioners must regularly work cross-functionally with business users when implementing enterprise systems. However, most IS higher education is not truly cross-functional in nature with students typically relying on instructors or even themselves to represent user requirements. To address this gap, we describe an ambitious multi-course project that paired students from an operations management class as business users with students from an undergraduate IS capstone course as systems developers to build an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application. In doing so, we attempted to emulate the critical success factors typically encountered in realistic cross-functional systems projects as identified in …