Business Commons^™

Public Comprehension Of Published Data - Technology To The Rescue?, Paul Lorton Jr

Business Analytics and Information Systems

There is a need for the public to monitor the efficacy of what the public funds. This certainly was the view in 1989 when the voters of California passed Proposition 98 – the Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act.

Since the passage of Proposition 98, every public K-12 school in California has published and distributed a School Accountability Report Card (SARC) as hard copy sent home to the parents and, as the revised law compelled, made available on the internet.

Did the use of this technology (i.e., the internet and the infrastructure it requires) realize its purpose – to inform? …

Disaggregating ‘China’ In Africa, Nicholas Imparato, Lucy Corkin

Marketing (Formerly Marketing and Law)

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Involvement In The Organisation-Public Relationship: Measuring The Mediating Role Of Involvement Between Organisation Behavior And Perceived Relationship Quality, D S. Bortree, Richard D. Waters

Public and Nonprofit Administration

Stakeholder involvement has played a significant role in the evolution of public relations from a strategic communication function to one of relationship management. Despite encouragement to explore the impact involvement has on the organisation-public relationship, few scholars have examined this construct. This study measures involvement in the non-profit organisation-volunteer relationship by using Zaichkowsky’s (1985) personal involvement inventory and examines its impact on relationship quality. New cultivation strategies, nurturance and instrumental aid, are identified. Results suggest that involvement plays a role in mediating the impact of cultivation strategies on the quality volunteers perceive in the non-profit organisation relationship.

The Value Of Relationship And Communication Management In Fundraising: Comparing Donors' And Practitioners' Views Of Stewardship, Richard D. Waters

Public and Nonprofit Administration

The organisation-public relationship paradigm has frequently referenced Kelly’s (2001) stewardship strategies as possible methods for strengthening relationships with stakeholders; however, there have been no attempts to measure stewardship. A mailed survey of individual donors (n = 1,706) and fundraising team members (n = 124) at three non-profit hospitals asked participants to evaluate their views toward the four stewardship strategies as well as estimate how the other side would evaluate them. By using the coorientation methodology, this study found that although both sides valued the four stewardship strategies, their attitudes differed in magnitude. These findings provide growing support for future examination …

Exploring The Use Of Social Bookmarking Technology In Education: An Analysis Of Students’ Experiences Using A Course-Specific Delicious.Com Account, Tricia M. Farwell, Richard D. Waters

Public and Nonprofit Administration

With more than 4.6 million people, mostly undergraduates, enrolling in at least one online course in fall of 2008, students are showing that they are comfortable with the concept of technology in education. Many students in online classes, however still have to deal with the high cost of textbooks and supplemental materials. Online technologies, however, can provide other alternatives to costly coursepacks and textbooks. Faculty and students may be able to replace or supplement coursepacks and textbooks with social bookmarking sites. This study shows how social bookmarking, specifically Delicious.com, can be used in a course to provide an inexpensive answer …

Ensuring Sound Financial Management, Elizabeth Norton-Schaffer

Public and Nonprofit Administration

No abstract provided.

Travelers’ Most Preferred Green Attributes For A Hotel Room, Michelle Millar

Hospitality Management

The purpose of this study, based on bundles of select environmentally friendly hotel room attributes, is to identify what kind of green hotel room business and leisure travelers would most prefer. Another purpose of the study is to assess whether customers are willing to pay more, and if so, how much more, to stay in an environmentally friendly hotel room. The hotel room most preferred incorporated a refillable shampoo dispenser, energy efficient light bulbs, and towel and linen policies, as well as key cards, and green hotel certification. Green hotel certification was the most influential attribute on preference. These results …

Internet Recruiting In The Cruise Industry, Michelle Millar

Hospitality Management

The cruise line industry is expanding rapidly. Recruitment within the industry will be an endless task and the cruise lines will need to explore every avenue possible to recruit new employees for each new contracted ship. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the website of each major cruise line to determine if they are utilizing their website to recruit employees. In total, 33 attributes relating to e-recruiting method, function, content, and job search tools, were analyzed. The results of the content analysis revealed that, although the cruise lines are using e-recruiting methods, they are not using the …

Developing A Convention And Event Management Curriculum In Asia: Using Blue Ocean Strategy And Co-Creation With Industry, David L. Jones

Hospitality Management

In this article the author discusses the development of a convention and event management curriculum in Asia through blue ocean strategy and co-creation with the industry. He emphasizes the necessity to differentiate the product from the competition, which is a concept that applies to an academic degree programs in order to create a niche in the market. The author also discusses the approach being used and the development of the curriculum.

The Impact Of Ethnic Diversity On The Ladies Professional Golf Association: A Case Study Of Anheuser-Busch And Its Sponsorship Objectives And Strategies, Joon-Seo Andrew Choi

Kinesiology (Formerly Exercise and Sport Science)

Between January 2001 and November 2009, players of Asian decent won nearly 30% of the 287 LPGA-sanctioned tournaments held during the period. By contrast, only 15 years ago (in 1995), an Asian player won only one of the 37 LPGA tournaments held that year(Ladies Professional Golf Association [LPGA], 2009). Clearly a new generation of golferse has significantly increased the ethnic diversity of the LPGA and it tournament winners. THis study investigated whether and how ethnic diversity in the LPGA has influenced the objectives and strategies of LPGA sponsorship decisions for the Anheuser-Busch Company (A-B). This research included 11 semi-structured interviews …

Regional Innovative Capacity In China: From The Perspective Of Embedded Autonomy, Ying Zhou, Xiaohua Yang, Rachel Parker, Paul Steffens

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Strategy

Innovation is widely considered as the core driver of nations' economic growth and competitiveness. Since the start of economic reform in 1978, the provincial governments in China have gained much autonomy, which has led to the co-existence of multi-level innovation systems, national innovation system and regional (provincial) innovation system. With the economic development and social progress, the disparities in innovative capacity (I C) among regions in China are becoming increasingly larger. Considering the unique innovation context of China and drawing upon the research on IC, this paper proposed to employ theories of embedded autonomy and governed interdependence, which was developed …

Foreign Produced Content And Japanese Price Disinflation: An Empirical Study, Peggy Takahashi, Daniel Blakley, Joel Oberstone, Yasuhiro Akiyama

Economics, Law, and International Business

This research investigates the role non-macroeconomic factors have played in subduing inflationary pressures in Japan. We investigate the hypothesis that the under-recognized presence of goods with high foreign produced content (FPC) in the consumer market basket has coincided with reduced price-level increases over the time period 1991-2004. An empirical examination and descriptive comparison of CPI market basket items and import data categories suggest the negative relationship between FPC and the CPI inflation rate over this time period is significant. Our conclusions suggest the extent to which measures of inflation are considered to be an accurate gauge of macroeconomic conditions or …

Managing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Risks Of Gift, Travel And Entertainment Expenditures, Karl Boedecker

Economics, Law, and International Business

Significant increases in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement activities have heightened the legal risks associated with giving gifts or paying travel and entertainment expenses for U.S. firms when promoting their goods or services in foreign markets. This change in the external environment necessitates appropriate strategic adjustments and managerial actions. The lack of specific standards of conduct under the FCPA’s general prohibitions requires that U.S. firms closely monitor the increasing number of investigations and legal actions initiated by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Women Accountants In The 1880 Us Federal Census: A Genealogical Analysis, Diane H. Roberts

Accounting

This historical census micro-data project examines the characteristics of women who self report as accountants in the 1880 US Federal Census. Using the data provided by the actual Census forms the demographic, familial, and economic characteristics of women accountants are examined and found to be quite different from the experience of accountants overall found by Lee [2007]. A fairly clear picture of a typical 1880 female accountant emerged and analysis of their multi-generational families gave insight into the changing occupational landscape of the period. Almost all women accountants were US born of US born parents and most did not migrate …

Mission Conceived Versus Mission Achieved, Paul Lorton Jr

Business Analytics and Information Systems

The stated mission of an organization is, in a deductively ordered world, the encapsulation of the timeless focus of that organization from which measureable objectives can be derived to assess how well that organization is progressing toward its destiny. For arts organizations in troubled times, this coupling of mission driven direction and success ought, in theory to be tight. The effort reported here examines the degree to which an Arts organization, in particular those presenting Opera, have stayed their mission dictated course and survived, even succeeded. By looking in depth at several opera companies in the San Francisco Bay area, …

Spreadsheet Simulation Of Airline Reservation Policy Using Multimedia Software, Joel Oberstone

Business Analytics and Information Systems

A hypothetical business simulation case study using a stand-alone spreadsheet is used to illuminate the rationale of airline overbooking. Because almost everyone has personally encountered the implications of being “bumped,” the selection of this particular case subject is motivated by the belief that half of the problem (or more) of teaching a so-phisticated analytical method is in getting the stu-dent's attention. Airline overbooking, it seems, pre-sents such a case. In order for a student to “drill down” the spreadsheet skills, several multimedia tools, Wimba and Jing, are used to produce web hosted, mp4 video files of a library of short …

Spreadsheets Grow Up: Three Spreadsheet Engineering Methodologies For Large Financial Planning Models, Thomas A. Grossman Jr., O Ozluk

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Many large financial planning models are written in a spreadsheet programming language (usually Microsoft Excel) and deployed as a spreadsheet application. Three groups, FAST Alliance, Operis Group, and BPM Analytics (under the name “Spreadsheet Standards Review Board”) have independently promulgated standardized processes for efficiently building such models. These spreadsheet engineering methodologies provide detailed guidance on design, construction process, and quality control. We summarize and compare these methodologies. They share many design practices, and standardized, mechanistic procedures to construct spreadsheets. We learned that a written book or standards document is by itself insufficient to understand a methodology. These methodologies represent a …

Intelligent Procedures For Intra-Day Updating Of Call Center Agent Schedules, Vijay Mehrotra, O. Ozluk, R. Saltzman

Business Analytics and Information Systems

For nearly all call centers, agent schedules are typically created several days or weeks prior to the time that agents report to work. After schedules are created, call center resource managers receive additional information that can affect forecasted workload and resource availability. In particular, there is significant evidence, both among practitioners and in the research literature, suggesting that actual call arrival volumes early in a scheduling period (typically an individual day or week) can provide valuable information about the call arrival pattern later in the same scheduling period. In this paper, we develop a flexible and powerful heuristic framework for …

Black Swans And Retirement Strategies: Is “Buy And Hold Best”?, Barry Doyle, Robert Mefford, Nicholas Tay

Finance

The recent market crash which has led to as much as a 47% drop in the value of the S&P500 index has made some of us wonder if there is a cost effective way for us to hedge our retirement portfolios against such a drastic loss. Our objective is to investigate empirically the tradeoffs that will arise from using a protective put strategy for hedging retirement portfolios over an investment horizon that is long enough to be comparable to the average holding period for retirement portfolios

What Financial Risk Managers Can Learn From Six Sigma Quality Programs, Barry Doyle, Robert Mefford, Nicholas Tay

Finance

As the financial crisis of 2008 has revealed, there are some flaws in the models used by financial firms to assess risk. Credit, volatility, and liquidity risk were all inadequately modeled by supposedly sophisticated financial institutions employing dozens of financial engineers with advanced degrees. It is now clear that some of the underlying assumptions of the statistical models utilized were seriously flawed, and interactive and systemic effects were improperly modeled. Correcting these modeling flaws is one approach to preventing a reoccurrence. However, another approach is suggested by Six Sigma quality programs used in manufacturing and service industries. Some basic tenets …

Specialty Food And Beverage: A Case Study Of Small Business Management, Barry Doyle, Arthur H. Bell, Dayle Smith

Finance

Specialty Food and Beverage is facing growing pains from its rapid expansion over the last decade and more. The case provides a summary of the challenges faced by the company in the areas of supply chain management, marketing plans, the creation of economic value, and the development of a long term strategy for profitable growth.

Do Animated Banner Ads Hurt Websites? The Moderating Roles Of Website Loyalty And Need For Cognition, Sweta Thota, Ji Hee Song, Val Larsen

Marketing (Formerly Marketing and Law)

While extant research has examined the effectiveness of banner ads, relatively little is known about the effect of animated banner ads on consumers’ attitudes and revisit intentions toward the host website and the brand advertised in the ad. This research contributes to and enhances our understanding of this topic by exploring and identifying consumer responses to animated banner ads on websites and then empirically testing a conceptual model. Results show that exposure to animated banner ads on a website results in consumer skepticism toward the website, which negatively influences their attitudes toward the website and the brand in the ad …