Business Commons^™

Investor Reaction To Exploration Versus Exploitation Using An Asorptive Capacity Lens, Kevin Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

In his seminal work, March (1991) points to innovation as a key to a firm’s survival. In this dissertation proposal, I seek to build on March’s research by leveraging his construct of balancing a focus on improving existing capabilities (“exploitation”) while simultaneously creating new competencies (“exploration”). These two approaches to innovation are often viewed as requiring a firm to leverage very different skills. Not only are there differing skills, but the level of risk and potential reward also vary based on a firm’s decision to focus on exploration versus exploitation. The reaction of investors to this dichotomy is the focus …

Essays On Decision Problems Under Uncertainty, Mahsa Mardikoraem

Theses and Dissertations

One of the fundamental questions in many operations and decision problems is how to incorporate available information into the decision-making process in uncertain environments. In two essays, we develop tools for operations decision problems. In the first essay, we consider the case when only partial information (mode and a few percentiles) about the probability distribution of the variable of interest is available. In the second essay, we consider the case when a sample observation from the variable of interest and its predictors, along with prior distributions about the parameters of the probability model, are available.

Essay 1. Maximum entropy distributions …

Essays On Fake Review Detection, Managerial Response, And Consumer Perceptions, Long Chen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how online reviews and managerial responses jointly affect consumer perceptions. I first examine and compare the outcomes of multiple fake review classifiers using various algorithms, including traditional machine learning methods and recently developed deep learning methods (essay I). Then, based on the findings of the first essay, I examine the interrelationship between fake review detection, managerial response, and hotel ratings and ratings’ growths (essay II).The first essay is a comparative study on the methodology of identifying fake reviews. Although online reviews have attracted much attention from academia and industry for over fifteen years, how to identify fake …

Essays On The Impacts Of The 2020 Pandemic On Consumer Preference, Madhulina Bandyopadhyay

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTESSAYS ON THE IMPACT OF THE 2020 PANDEMIC ON CONSUMER PREFERENCE by Madhulina Bandyopadhyay

The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, 2021Under the Supervision of Professor Sanjoy Ghose

The global pandemic of 2020 triggered by Coronavirus (COVID-19) has revealed many challenges around the world. Although initiated by a major health crisis, the scope and scale of the challenges expanded far beyond the health care sector. This crisis forced the global community to adapt to rapid and major changes in lifestyles and practices. Despite the differences in responses due to sociocultural customs and available resources, some common approaches were evident. For example, …

Two Essays On Leveraging Analytics To Improve Healthcare, Deepika Gopukumar

Theses and Dissertations

The healthcare cost has continued to increase over the past few years despite various policies, efforts, and initiatives taken by the government. It is still projected to grow over the next few years by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Readmissions have been a major contributor to the increase in costs and have always been a contributing factor. To get a perspective, considering the fact that at least 9% of individuals who had COVID-19 were likely to get readmitted shortly, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 response team, along with …

An Internatural Communication Study Of Identity Within Nonprofit Animal Shelters, Samentha Emily Sepúlveda

Theses and Dissertations

In a two-part study of this dissertation project, I relied on qualitative research methods to examine the stories of animal shelter employees and volunteers—stories about animal shelters, animal sheltering, and shelter animals—to analyze communication processes that shape staff-identity, organizational-identity, and organizational identification. This project was guided by the communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) approach, which frames communication as not simply something that happens within an organization, but rather argues organization happens in communication. Furthermore, contributing to internatural communication research, this project explored identity and identification from a “more-than human” perspective. Relating CCO and internatural communication to research in this dissertation …