Business Commons^™

Using Machine Learning Techniques To Model Encoder/Decoder Pair For Non-Invasive Electroencephalographic Wireless Signal Transmission, Ernst Fanfan

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

This study investigated the application and enhancement of Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces (NI-BCIs), focused on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of this technology for individuals with severe physical limitations. The core research goal was to improve current limitations associated with wires, noise, and invasive procedures often associated with BCI technology. The key discussed solution involves developing an optimized Encoder/Decoder (E/D) pair using machine learning techniques, particularly those borrowed from Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) and other Deep Neural Networks, to minimize data transmission and ensure robustness against data degradation. The study highlighted the crucial role of machine learning in self-adjusting and isolating …

Vinyle Zine: The Execution Of The Pedagogy Of Pro-Blackness, Kandice Fowlkes

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Vinyle zine, is a Black literary magazine pedagogically driven to increase cultural literacy within the African-American community. In order to do this, this magazine must have the foundation of Pro-Blackness as a driving force towards advancing Black people in the ways this platform can offer its service. Vinyle zine allows Black individuals to practice using writing and any art form as their medium of expression –a tool that has been utilized to extol African American truths and increase cultural knowledge. By encouraging expression in art and provoking cultural knowledge, Vinyle zine will continue to encourage Black artists and writers to …

Security Issues With Software In Maritime Industry: Focus On Artificial Intelligence, Alexis Nixon

Graduate Scholarly Works

Abstract

Maritime industry is the use of waterways to conduct business, move people and goods across water and shipping goods overseas. This area of business is last to update their cyber security and technical policies leading to many issues discussed below. Some of proposed solutions include updated software, patches, autonomous ships and updating the legality issues around technical updates in Maritime industry. Overall, the goal of the paper is to help the reader become informed about the shortcomings in maritime software, understand the vulnerabilities in the software they use, propose solutions to the vulnerabilities and discuss a popular new option …

Privacy Rights Pertaining To The Developing Cyber World We Live In, Alexis Nixon

Graduate Scholarly Works

A large concern expressed by the general public is the right to privacy when dealing with the cyber/online sector. One major factor that influences the privacy rights of people in the cyber realm is our fourth amendment in the United States. In this paper, the focus will be on the fourth amendment, privacy rights and how these pertain to the cyber world of individuals, companies and countries. Some of the points covered in the sections below include: an explanation of the fourth amendment, influential court case pertaining to the fourth amendment, companies right to privacy/ keeping their customers data private, …

Online Fraud By Way Of Phishing Emails, Alexis Nixon

Graduate Scholarly Works

With the rise of people using the Internet more since Covid-19 started, there has been an increase in fraud cases that occur on the internet as well. Some of these frauds occur by way of romance scams, inauthentic products or even investment fraud. The single type of fraud that was researched and discussed below is the use of phishing emails to commit fraud. Here the perpetrator sends out the same email in a mass quantity, with hopes of getting as many people to fall victim to as possible. The email usually looks like it is legitimate and coming from your …

How Social Media And Internet Links To Hate Speech, Cyber Bullying, And Defiance/Cybercrime In Youth, Alexis Nixon

Graduate Scholarly Works

Over the past 20 years or so there has been an increase in technological advancements and more people gaining access to the internet. While these advancements have been helpful in the everyday functions of life, they also bring with them some negative effects (Brady et al., 2015). One of the most vulnerable groups to fall victim to the negative effects of technology and social media are the youth but more specifically the teenagers in middle and high school. In the following essay, there has been research done to explain the societal impacts of cybercrime/deviance on teens, online hate speech and …

The Social Market Economy As A Formula For Peace, Prosperity, And Sustainability, Almuth D. Merkel

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

The social market economy was developed in Germany during the interwar period amidst political and economic turmoil. With clear demarcation lines differentiating it from socialism and laissez-faire capitalism, the social market economy became a formula for peace and prosperity for post WWII Germany. Since then, the success of the social market economy has inspired many other countries to adopt its principles. Drawing on evidence from economic history and the history of economic thought, this thesis first reviews the evolution of the fundamental principles that form the foundation of social-market economic thought. Blending the micro-economic utility maximization framework with traditional growth …

Using Multiple Data Sources For Customer Satisfaction Analyzing: A Sentimental Approach, Jhanvi Vyas

Master of Science in Information Technology Theses

The effectiveness of data and data providers in marketing has created a hype in the marketing world. Businesses often face a divided approach because of the increasing volume of data collected through a variety of data channels. This results in marketers often facing problems in acquiring precise market data for analysis. The correct techniques and knowledge required to integrate all the available sources for acquiring proper analytical results are yet to be specifically known. There is no universally accepted technological methodology when it comes to integrating data sources for market analysis, but there are a few business concepts that can …

Data-Driven Investment Decisions In P2p Lending: Strategies Of Integrating Credit Scoring And Profit Scoring, Yan Wang

Doctor of Data Science and Analytics Dissertations

In this dissertation, we develop and discuss several loan evaluation methods to guide the investment decisions for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. In evaluating loans, credit scoring and profit scoring are the two widely utilized approaches. Credit scoring aims at minimizing the risk while profit scoring aims at maximizing the profit. This dissertation addresses the strengths and weaknesses of each scoring method by integrating them in various ways in order to provide the optimal investment suggestions for different investors. Before developing the methods for loan evaluation at the individual level, we applied the state-of-the-art method called the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) …

A Credit Analysis Of The Unbanked And Underbanked: An Argument For Alternative Data, Edwin Baidoo

Doctor of Data Science and Analytics Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the statistical and economic significance of non-traditional credit data for individuals who do not have sufficient economic data, collectively known as the unbanked and underbanked. The consequences of not having sufficient economic information often determines whether unbanked and underbanked individuals will receive higher price of credit or be denied entirely. In terms of regulation, there is a strong interest in credit models that will inform policies on how to gradually move sections of the unbanked and underbanked population into the general financial network.

In Chapter 2 of the dissertation, I establish the …

A Novel Penalized Log-Likelihood Function For Class Imbalance Problem, Lili Zhang

Doctor of Data Science and Analytics Dissertations

The log-likelihood function is the optimization objective in the maximum likelihood method for estimating models (e.g., logistic regression, neural network). However, its formulation is based on assumptions that the target classes are equally distributed and the overall accuracy is maximized, which do not apply to class imbalance problems (e.g., fraud detection, rare disease diagnoses, customer conversion prediction, cybersecurity, predictive maintenance). When trained on imbalanced data, the resulting models tend to be biased towards the majority class (i.e. non-event), which can bring great loss in practice. One strategy for mitigating such bias is to penalize the misclassification costs of observations differently …

Welcome Guide: Onboarding Guidebook For Hannah Michelle Photography, Hannah Lozano

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Hannah Michelle Photography is a small photography brand owned by Hannah Lozano. This document serves as a capstone project for Hannah Lozano. She has created a comprehensive onboarding document for future employees of Hannah Michelle Photography.

Making Good Decisions: An Attribution Model Of Decision Quality In Decision Tasks, Bethany Niese

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Decision-makers endeavor to obtain the decision quality which puts them in a position to reach their goals. In order to control or influence decision quality, the processes by which individuals form their beliefs must be understood. In addition, many decision makers rely on decision support technologies to help find patterns in data and make sense of the input, so these technologies must be considered in parallel with the processes.

There have been numerous studies conducted to illuminate the factors which affect decision quality, however, many of these studies focused on objective measures and factors. This approach ignores individual perception, belief, …

Hedge Fund Ownership And Auditor-Client Contracting In U.S. Firms, Sarah Feltus

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Hedge funds have grown rapidly in the last two decades, from managing assets worth approximately $600 billion in 2003 to over $3 trillion in 2017. As hedge funds themselves have grown, so too have concerns about their involvement with publicly traded companies and their effect on various stakeholders and the economy. Although Critics claim that hedge fund activism creates a short-term focus, shifting funds out of expansion and research and development and into distributions to shareholders, proponents argue that hedge fund activism helps boards overcome management incompetence and counter passive investors. Academic research is mixed on the long-term effects of …

Entrepreneur-Venture Fit And Burnout: Moderating Effects Of Entrepreneurial Passion, David Witt

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Entrepreneurial burnout is a worrying problem because it is related to reduced performance and venture failures. Existing models do not adequately explain the causes of burnout among entrepreneurs. Exploring the antecedents and mechanisms leading to this significant issue can thus enhance our understanding and facilitate the design of interventions.

This study proposes an entrepreneur-venture fit model to explain burnout among entrepreneurs. Regulatory focus orientations of promotion and prevention are proposed as defining the characteristics of entrepreneurs and their ventures that determine fit, and passion is proposed to moderate fit effects.

The model was tested using a survey-based field study to …

Privacy Concerns About Genetic Testing: Does Ethnicity Matter?, Queen Deinde-Smith

KSU Journey Honors College Capstones and Theses

The direct-to-consumer genetic testing market is predicted to reach $340 million by 2020 (Seward, 2018). DTC genetic tests (DTC-GTs) are DNA kits purchased and taken by consumers in their homes to learn about their ancestry, trait/disease propensity, etc. Although, many companies state in their privacy policies that they share genetic information with third parties, it’s not evident that consumers completely understand how their information will be used e.g., for research or law enforcement. Prior research has found some ethnicities have low awareness of DTC-GTs e.g., African Americans and Hispanic Americans (Salloum et. al, 2018) but it’s not clear if this …

The Impact Of Audit Engagement Partner Disclosure On Audit Outcomes In The United States, J. Alan Bell

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE IMPACT OF AUDIT ENGAGEMENT PARTNER DISCLOSURE ON AUDIT OUTCOMES IN THE UNITED STATES

by

James Alan Bell

This study is motivated by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) mandate requiring the public disclosure of the audit engagement partner’s identity. Prior to the ruling, the audit engagement partner (AEP) was known only to the company’s management, audit committee, audit firm, and regulators. The PCAOB maintains that disclosure of the AEP will increase the partner’s sense of accountability; and increase transparency in the audit process; leading to improved audit quality; and improved financial reporting quality; thereby improving the credibility …

The Informed Human Firewall: The Impact Of Knowledge Dimensions On Employees' Secure Behavior, Ashraf Mady

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Organizations implement a variety of knowledge mechanisms such as information security education, training, and awareness (SETA) programs and information security policies to influence employees’ secure behavior. However, skills gained through these knowledge mechanisms have not always translated to secure behavior. Protection motivation theory (PMT) is a widely used and accepted theory in information security behavioral research. Nevertheless, information security research has not examined the impact of knowledge mechanisms on PMT psychological processes. This study explains the key psychological processes that influence employees’ secure behavior and seeks to understand how organizational knowledge mechanisms influence these key psychological processes that form threats …

The Examiniation Of Entrepreneurial Investment Tax Credits: Angel Vs. Crowdfunding Investing, Laura Barthel

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Equity-investment credits are prevalent in the United States and other countries (Bell and Woodmansee, 2016), yet little evidence exists about the effectiveness of these credits at incentivizing individuals to invest. The intent of these credits is to spur entrepreneurial activity and in turn economic development (Acs, Asterbro, Audretsch, and Robinson, 2016; Bell, Wilbanks, and Hendon, 2013; Erken, Donselaar, and Thurik, 2016). The current study experimentally tests the influence of a tax credit on an individual’s likelihood to invest in startups across two risk settings, which parallel Angel and Crowdfunding investing methods.

The study finds an equity-investment tax credit is effective …

Media Guide And Strategic Plan, Ella Greer

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

An MAPW candidate composes a strategic plan and media guide for a local government office.

Is A Pension Fund's Mix Of Fair Value Investments, Audit Type, And Audit Quality Associated With The Firm's Credit Rating?, Trevor England

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

There has been a proliferation of alternative investment holdings by defined benefit pension plans during the 21^st century. While holdings of alternative investments may advantage pension plans and their sponsoring firms through diversification and/or less volatile returns, they may also present valuation problems because underlying investments in opaquely valued (or marked-to-model) securities contain larger estimation error and uncertainty. Such valuation problems may concern credit reporting agencies because the sponsoring firm’s pension plan liability is uncertain. This problem is exacerbated through agency relationships within pension plans that enable executives and investment managers to engage in opportunistic financial reporting of fair …

Intuition In Employee Selection: Examining The Conditions For Accurate Intuitive Hiring Decisions, Vinod Vincent

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

In complex organizational environments, managers often rely on intuition to make decisions. Research has found intuition to be helpful when the task is complex; the decision maker is a domain expert; and when the decision environment has a high level of uncertainty, complexity, time pressure, insufficient data, and more than one reasonable solution. However, in employee selection, which is a decision environment that typically has the aforementioned characteristics that are conducive for intuition, scholars discount the usefulness of intuition in favor of more objective, analytical selection methods such as specific aptitude (e.g. sales ability) tests. A reason for the lack …

Social Capital And Dynamic Capabilities In A Top Management Team, Blaine Schreiner

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Top management teams greatly influence the performance of their organizations based on their interpretations of the situations they face and the decisions they make built on those interpretations. In addition, the long-term success of the organization relies upon the top management team’s ability to properly balance the exploration and exploitation capabilities of the organization. The literature regarding the impact of the top management team’s social capital is limited and even less is known about the intra-organizational social capital of this group. This study examines the effect of the top management team’s intra-organizational social capital on exploratory and exploitative dynamic capability …

Investigating Information Security Policy Characteristics: Do Quality, Enforcement And Compliance Reduce Organizational Fraud?, Dennis T. Brown

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Organizational fraud, a deceitful practice or willful device resorted to with intent to deprive another of his right, or in some manner to do harm or injury, is a growing global concern. While cyberattacks from the outside are more expected, the internal security threat from trusted insiders is responsible for significantly more information compromise than external threats. Information systems make life easier but are increasingly used by employees to perpetrate fraudulent activities. For example, a trusted insider employee with access to sensitive customer databases could misappropriate information and sell it to a competitor for personal gain. These type losses are …

Trust And Distrust Scale Development: Operationalization And Instrument Validation, John D. Rusk

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Trust and distrust have been studied at great length by researchers in the field of information systems and various other fields over the past few decades without reaching consensus on conceptualization and measurement. The goal of this study was to determine if individual trust and distrust are separate constructs or opposite ends of the same continuum. To this end, based on theoretical rationale, an aggregation of extant, validated trust and distrust instruments combined with newly created trust and distrust items were used as input into a rigorous Q-sorting procedure. The Q-sorting process led to the first contribution of this research: …

Data Analytics In An Audit: Examining Fraud Risk And Audit Quality, Sondra Smith

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DATA ANALYTICS IN AN AUDIT: EXAMINING FRAUD RISK AND

AUDIT QUALITY

by

Sondra Smith

This study is comprised of two papers which examine, through interviews and an experiment, the current practices of data analytics of CPA firms, whether and how fraud risk impacts the usage of data analytics in an audit, and the effect data analytics has on the efficiency and effectiveness of an audit. The implementation of data analytics in an audit is relatively new, and there is not a good understanding of how it is currently being used in practice. Although historically the auditing profession has been …

Sex May Sell But Gender Identity Predicts: An Investigation Of College Students’ Propensity To Join Entrepreneurship Clubs, Jerald Wallace

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

A rich and diverse stream of research has focused on assessing different outcomes between men and women entrepreneurs. Popular stereotypes maintain that women are neither as interested, or successful as entrepreneurs compared to men. However, most past research has used biological sex as a proxy to measure differences between women and men dichotomously. The problem with this approach is that it is an oversimplified approach to a complex issue. To address this problem, the more recent literature suggests the inclusion of more meaningful variables, such as gender identity, an individual’s concept of their traits both masculine and feminine, to assess …

Audit Committee Oversight Of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, Andrea B. Weickgenannt

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This study investigates the processes audit committees employ to fulfill their obligation to oversee internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). Specifically, I explore audit committee processes within five fundamental internal control components: control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring (COSO, 2013). I consider agency theory and institutional theory, investigating the degree of substantive versus ceremonial processes used by audit committees. Additionally, this study considers comfort theory as it reveals details about how audit committees get “comfortable” with ICFR.

The research questions in this study are examined through a cross-sectional survey of 167 public company audit committee …

Fees, Going Concern Opinions And Auditor Dismissals: An Empirical Assessment, Frances Ann Stott

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Auditors issue going concern modified opinions when there is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue its operations into the foreseeable future. Companies frequently respond to this type of audit opinion by changing auditors. Critics, such as the SEC, suggest that this may be done in order to opinion shop (i.e., find an auditor who is likely to issue a more favorable unqualified opinion). However, prior research has indicated that opinion shopping may not be effective. Since firms receiving a going concern modified opinion are clearly under significant financial distress, the effect a change in auditor has on subsequent …

Built To Last: Exploring Family Strategy In Dynastic Business Families, Mark William Auger

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Dynasties entwine family and fortune. They are organizational longevity outliers. Society offers a conflicting view of dynasties. On one hand, dynasties are associated with conflict, divisiveness, conspicuous consumption, and entitlement. On the other hand, dynastic business families employ people, produce and innovate products and processes, and give to community. Linked to values and enacted by strategic leaders, strategy organizes and mobilizes capital toward goals attainment. The firm-centric perspectives of the strategic management and family business strategy literatures overlook the systematic investigation of family strategy as a means of perpetuation. This grounded theory influenced study explores the components of a family …