Business Commons^™

Paying Attention To Social Media Stocks, Wan-Jiun Paul Chiou, Heather Knewtson, John R. Nofsinger

College of Business Publications

Social media has reshaped business models, economies, politics, and culture around the world. In this paper, we identified social media stocks from various sectors by using a strict, academic definition and then studied their performance and return characteristics. Multivariate regression results demonstrate that being recognized as a social media firm yields extra return. The performance of social media stocks is not associated with macro-level sentiment, but rather with firm-level attention paid by potential investors. Causality tests indicate that the default risk premium and volatility have incremental power in explaining the performance of social media stocks.

Measuring The Regional Availability Of Forest Biomass For Biofuels And The Potential Of Ghg Reduction, Fengli Zhang, Dana M. Johnson, Jinjiang Wang, Shuhai Liu, Shimin Zhang

College of Business Publications

Forest biomass is an important resource for producing bioenergy and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The State of Michigan in the United States (U.S.) is one region recognized for its high potential of supplying forest biomass; however, the long-term availability of timber harvests and the associated harvest residues from this area has not been fully explored. In this study time trend analyses was employed for long term timber assessment and developed mathematical models for harvest residue estimation, as well as the implications of use for ethanol. The GHG savings potential of ethanol over gasoline was also modeled. The methods were …

A Dynamic Model To Assess The Carrying Capacity Of A Defined System, Yongliang Jin, Richard P. Donovan, William S. Breffle

College of Business Publications

A system dynamics method to assess carrying capacity of a defined natural environment is presented. The proposed method seeks to relate per capita resource usage to ranges of population and per capita consumption beyond which the system is not viable relative to population dependent resource constraints. It provides a platform to investigate system behavior through system dynamics simulations where populations change, natural resources decay due to stressor impacts, and feedback occurs via implementation of policy. Application of the model to a case study of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of phosphorous in Bear Lake, a Lake Michigan estuary (USA), shows …

Sem Of Service Quality To Predict Overall Patient Satisfaction In Medical Clinics: A Case Study, Dana M. Johnson, Roberta S. Russell

College of Business Publications

This study analyzed patient satisfaction surveys to determine which process attributes affect overall patient satisfaction. The authors conclude that the strongest impact is the care provider's interaction with the patient. Healthcare providers/practitioners value business analytics as a means to focus and redirect their continuous improvement efforts and to encourage appropriate provider behavior. The data for this research were gathered from patient satisfaction surveys from 18 diverse medical clinics in a rural, Midwestern U.S. healthcare system. Overall patient satisfaction was measured by four separate variables. Quality service was measured by five dimensions and related constructs. All were measured through the use …

Explaining Bond Spreads Via Default Risk, Taxes, Rating Transition, And Liquidity, Dean Johnson, Howard Qi

College of Business Publications

This study develops a semi-structural framework of bond pricing that incorporates default risk, taxes, and bond rating transition, whereas prior papers have primarily focused on the first (and more recently the second) factor. After capturing the three effects, the remaining spread between corporate bond rates and risk free rates can intuitively be attributed to liquidity. Models estimated without all three effects cannot intuitively dismiss the "unexplained" spread as a liquidity premium. This is confirmed by applying the framework to samples from two periods (1973-1993, and 2004-2010).

The Influence Of External Auditors, Capital Markets, And Main Banks On Earnings Manipulations: Evidence From Japan, Kazuhiko Kobori, Robert Hutchinson

College of Business Publications

The present study investigates the influence of main industrial banks, capital markets, and international audit firms on earnings manipulations in Japan using a sample of firms listed on Japanese stock exchanges. A modified Jones model is used to measure earnings management using discretionary accruals as proxy, and the findings suggest that the main industrial banks continue to play a primary role in Japan’s system of corporate governance. However, global capital markets and international accounting standards may be slowly eroding this influence. This may have significant implications for international investors and policy makers as Japan continues through a protracted economic recession.

Leading A Mock Trading Floor: Active-Based Learning In A Business Context, Heather Knewtson

College of Business Publications

A master teaching approach was used during a session of introductory finance to provide high impact teaching practices for a large class of 190 freshman business students. To teach financial markets, an active-based learning activity was used, and the students participated in a simulated New York Stock Exchange trading floor. Using volunteers as market specialists, students traded fictional shares and submitted a portfolio assignment after the trading session. Active-based learning generated excitement toward meaningful student engagement about financial markets.

Learning Computing Topics In Undergraduate Information Systems Courses: Managing Perceived Difficulty, Jeffery D. Wall, Janice Knapp

College of Business Publications

Learning technical computing skills is increasingly important in our technology driven society. However, learning technical skills in information systems (IS) courses can be difficult. More than 20 percent of students in some technical courses may dropout or fail. Unfortunately, little rs known about students' perceptions of the difficulty of technical IS courses and how students cope with the perceived difficulty of technical content in IS courses. This paper explores how students perceive the difficulty of technical IS courses and how difficulty perceptions influence learning outcomes and perceptions. Learning technical topics may be particularly difficult for students from non-IS majors, yet …

Marketing Strategy For Unusual Brand Differentiation: Trivial Attribute Effect, M. Deniz Dalman, Junhong Min

College of Business Publications

This research investigates that brand differentiation creating superior values can be achieved not only by adding meaningful attributes but also meaningless attributes, which is called “trivial attribute effect.” Two studies provided empirical evidences as following; first, trivial attribute effect creates a strong brand differentiation even after subjects realize that trivial attribute has no value. Second, trivial attribute effect is more pronounced in hedonic service category compared to the utilitarian category. Last, the amount of willingness to pay is higher when trivial attribute is presented and evaluated in joint evaluation mode than separate evaluation mode. Finally, we conclude with discussion and …

Over-Reaction To The Calpers Focus List?, Tyler Yoder, Dean Johnson, Joseph Goebel, William A. Ogden, Srinivasan Sundaram

College of Business Publications

The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has over $ 200 billion in assets. Over the years it has gained an activist reputation. The size of investment provides it with a strong voice and the incentive to incur monitoring costs. CalPERS nudges the management and the board to act in the best interest of the shareholders. CalPERS regularly examines its portfolio and seeks change in firms that can potentially perform better. Some firms heed to this attention while those that ignore the attention end up on the focus list. This study examines the reaction of the market to the publishing …

Memory Game To Demonstrate The Power Of Collaborative Efforts To Improve Team Performance, Mari W. Buche

College of Business Publications

Collaboration is an important aspect of information systems (IS) education since work is typically performed in teams. However, IS students often do not fully appreciate the value of group work in their business courses. This teaching tip describes an activity that will objectively demonstrate the value of collaboration and diversity of perspectives, while simultaneously satisfying the preferences of visual and experiential learning styles. Knowledge gained through collaborative and cooperative learning tends to be retained for an extended period of time. The author includes discussion prompts to help guide students as they identify the value of diverse perspectives in team settings, …

Uncovering The Effect Of Selected Moderators On The Disconfirmation-Satisfaction Relationship: A Meta-Analytic Approach, Debi P. Mishra, Junhong Min

College of Business Publications

Customer satisfaction occupies a central role in marketing. Not surprisingly, researchers have produced an impressive body of literature that focuses on the causes and consequences of satisfaction. The antecedents of satisfaction have been investigated primarily through the disconfirmation paradigm which holds that satisfaction is the result of conscious mental accounting comparisons undertaken by customers. Furthermore, empirical findings of the disconfirmation-satisfaction link, which are broadly congruent, suggest that when performance conforms to or exceeds initial expectations, a mental state of positive disconfirmation ensues, leading to satisfaction. Despite this insight, a major gap in our understanding concerns lack of generalizability of the …

Inward Foreign Direct Investment: Does It Enable Or Constrain Domestic Technology Entrepreneurship?, Saurav Pathak, Andre O. Laplume, Emanuel Xavier-Oliveira

College of Business Publications

No abstract provided.

Does Technology Acceptance Affect E-Learning In A Non-Technology-Intensive Course?, Mari W. Buche, Larry R. Davis, Chelley Vician

College of Business Publications

Prior research suggests that individuals’ technology acceptance levels may affect their work and learning performanceoutcomes when activities are conducted through information technology usage. Most previous research investigating the relationship between individual attitudes towards technology and learning has been conducted in technology intensive settings. In this study we investigate the relationship between individuals’ technology acceptance factors and their performance in a non-technology intensive course – an introductory accounting course where technology is used as a learning tool but where knowledge of technology is not a primary learning objective. Results show that individuals with lower levels of academic proficiency are likely to …

Corporate Citizenship: Panacea Or Problem?, Latha Poonamallee

College of Business Publications

In this paper I examine the dilemma between being a market leader and a corporate citizen in the case of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. Grounded in secondary data collected from various published sources, I uncover the contradictions that underlie the positive picture of Hindustan Unilever's CSR activities. By drawing on corporate social responsibility and stakeholder theories, I highlight how difficult it is to categorise an organisation as solely positive or negative in its impact on its social and physical environment. I conclude by arguing that we need more sophisticated evaluative frameworks to understand and evaluate real-world initiatives in this area.

An Empirical Assessment Of Stimulus Presentation Mode Bias In Conjoint Analysis, Debi P. Mishra, Junhong Min, M. Deniz Dalman

College of Business Publications

Conjoint analysis, which aims to uncover the optimal combination of attributes influencing customer choice, is widely used by marketers to predict the success of new product and service introductions. In recent years, researchers have incorporated considerable mathematical sophistication into conjoint models and extended its domain to diverse areas such as pricing, market share, profitability, product positioning, distribution channels, and advertising. Despite these advances, the predictive power of conjoint applications is often compromised by response biases and measurement errors. The purpose of this research is to isolate and investigate the impact of one such bias that arises from the manner in …

Advaita (Non-Dualism) As Metatheory: A Constellation Of Ontology, Epistemology And Praxis, Latha Poonamallee

College of Business Publications

Integrating contradictory and mutually exclusive positions is a challenge in building a metatheory. In this paper, I examine how advaita (non-dualism) philosophy is a metatheory. Based on a holistic, non-dualistic ontology, discovery based epistemology, and personal accountability-action-reflection oriented praxis, it provides a useful metatheory for embracing, learning from, and transcending the paradoxes of social life. I use the example of Gandhi as a practitioner of this approach to action and knowledge.

Conflict Over The Sustainability Of Copper Mining: Experiences From Mi & Wi, Gary A. Campbell, Christa Walck, Anne M. Hartingh

College of Business Publications

No abstract provided.

Job Security And Personal Investment Portfolio, Yan Alice Xie, Howard Qi

College of Business Publications

This paper incorporates human capital into the well-established portfolio theory by allowing for job security in personal portfolio choice. Our model predicts that young people hold more cash to hedge against risk associated with human capital (layoff risk). As people age, layoff risk decreases, and consequently, they invest in more risky assets – stocks in their portfolios. However, as people approach retirement, their human capital diminishes, and they become more risk averse. Hence, they hold more cash again. Our model provides a plausible explanation for the observed investment behavior of people who reveal humped shape stock holdings over the life …

A Computational Analysis Of Exchange Rate Time Series, Yu Cai, Howard Qi

College of Business Publications

International trade and its expansion with the rise of modern global economies create a need for buying, selling or borrowing a multiplicity of foreign currencies. A key aspect of currency exposures is that a company might add extra risk due to selling or buying foreign currency due to the volatile exchange rate influenced by a variety of exogenous and endogenous factors. We have conducted a fairly comprehensive computational investigation of the exchange rate using time series based on econometric analysis. We choose the exchange rate between the US dollar and the British pound because of the pounds influential position in …

Credit Risk Models: An Analysis Of Default Correlation, Howard Qi, Yan Alice Xie, Sheen Liu

College of Business Publications

This paper examines one of the major problems in credit risk models widely used in the financial industry to forecast future defaults and bankruptcies. We find that even after proper calibration, a representative credit risk model can severely underestimate default correlation. We further find that a likely reason for the underestimation of default correlation is the problematic common practice in the financial industry of using observable equity correlation as a proxy for unobservable asset correlation when the model is applied to predict default correlation. However, our results show that this proxy in common practice is not valid.

Exploring The Effect Of Unfair Work Contexts On The Development Of Fairness Beliefs, Sonia Goltz

College of Business Publications

This paper examines what happens when individuals who perceive a fair situation discover that the situation is in fact, unfair. In a previous study, women who sued their universities discussed their initial expectations that the university would treat them fairly despite several studies that clearly indicated discrimination at universities is still a problem (Goltz, 2005a). Thus, using interview excerpts from this past study, the current paper explores how these women's expectations of fairness may have been formed, as well as how they changed after a discriminatory experience. Results suggest that the women's expectations of fairness arose in part from three …

Analyzing The Relationship Between Dependent And Independent Variables In Marketing: A Comparison Of Multiple Regression With Path Analysis, Junhong Min, Debi P. Mishra

College of Business Publications

Multiple regression models continue to be widely used in marketing. Within the regression framework, researchers have to grapple with and resolve several contentious issues. For example, multicollinearity, nonsimultaneous estimation of parameters, inherent measurement error in independent variables, absence of overall goodness of fit indices, and lack of compelling guidelines for adding and deleting model variables are some common estimation problems associated with this method. In the absence of universally acceptable guidelines, researchers often use judgment calls to deal with these issues. Such ad-hoc approaches, in turn, compromise the potential usefulness of multiple regression models. In this paper, we position path …

Mis Vision 2015, Mari W. Buche

College of Business Publications

Enrollment for Management Information Systems (MIS) majors has been declining since shortly after the turn of the century. The purpose of this document is to identify the indisputable benefits of maintaining a strong MIS degree program in the School of Business & Economics at Michigan Tech. We begin by clarifying what is meant by MIS and defining the discipline, reviewing the history of MIS in the SBE (e.g. average nearly 20% female majors in this particular STEM field), summarizing an analysis of our degree program (i.e. SWOT analysis), and outlining a plan to improve the number of MIS majors within …

Improving Capital Budgeting Decisions With Real Options, David E. Stout, Yan Alice Xie, Howard Qi

College of Business Publications

In this article we provide accounting practitioners with a primer on how to supplement traditional discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis with real options. We use an example of a rental car company that is considering the purchase of a new car for its rental fleet. Management is trying to decide whether to buy a conventional gasoline-engine automobile or a hybrid vehicle. Within this decision context we illustrate the embedded options the company should consider given uncertainty of a new energy bill offering income-tax credits for the purchase of commercially operated hybrid vehicles. Our step-by-step approach shows how to incorporate these …

Credit Spreads And Capital Structure Policy, Howard Qi

College of Business Publications

What is the effect of capital structure policy on credit spreads? In a widely cited paper by Huang and Huang (2003), a few representative structural models of credit spreads have been calibrated and compared. Among them are the model by Collin-Dufresne and Goldstein (2001) and the one by Leland and Toft (1996). The former assumes exogenously given stationary mean-reverting leverage, the latter optimizes its capital structure endogenously. Their study shows that all the models they calibrated perform similarly in that they all explain a very small portion of the observed spreads. We make three improvements based on that study. First, …

A Senior Design Project On Network Security, Yu Cai, Howard Qi

College of Business Publications

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a rapidly growing threat to today’s Internet. Significant works have been done in this field. It is vital to incorporate the latest development of technology into academic programs to provide training and education to students and professionals.

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a senior design project named DDoS Attack, Detection and Defense Simulation. We aim to build a test bed and configure the network environment to simulate “real-world” DDoS attack, detection and defense. We study several DDoS attack tools, as well as some commonly-used DDoS detection and defense software. We …

Sources Of Funding And Categories Of Spending For The School District Of Hillsborough County : An Analysis Performed By Center For Economic Development Research, College Of Business Administration, University Of South Florida, University Of South Florida. Center For Economic Development Research

College of Business Publications

No abstract provided.

A Longitudinal Investigation Of The Effects Of Computer Anxiety On Performance In A Computing-Intensive Environment, Mari W. Buche, Larry R. Davis, Chelley Vician

College of Business Publications

Computers are pervasive in business and education, and it would be easy to assume that all individuals embrace technology. However, evidence shows that roughly 30 to 40 percent of individuals experience some level of computer anxiety. Many academic programs involve computing-intensive courses, but the actual effects of this exposure on computer anxiety are unknown. This study contributes to the literature as follows. First, direct evidence of a relationship between longitudinal changes in individuals' computer anxiety and performance are reported. Second, the effects of changes in computer anxiety are shown to be dependent on individuals' initial level of anxiety. Third, some …

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Unifying Discourse For The Mining Industry?, Margot J. Hutchins, Christa Walck, Daniel P. Sterk, Gary A. Campbell

College of Business Publications

The public perception of mining as an economic activity that generates harmful environmental impacts has generated both a corporate discourse of social responsibility (CSR) to legitimise mining activities and also anti-mining discourses. Both discourses use science to support their claims, yet they rarely agree on a scientific solution. The concept of discourse community may help us to understand the disconnect between mining companies and stakeholders. It is unclear whether the discourse of corporate social responsibility will improve understanding among stakeholders and lead to mutually acceptable resolutions to conflict.