Business Commons^™

Kitchen Invasion: Restaurants’ Business Model Innovations During The Covid-19 Crisis, Jaewoo Jung

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation explores how and why firms facing the same exogenous threats react differently, leading to different business model innovation (BMI) processes. I examine BMI in a context that has been hard-hit by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions—the restaurant industry. Employing a mixed-method research design, I conducted a longitudinal, inductive comparative case study of 17 restaurateurs in the same geographic region to explore how they have responded to the pandemic and how their BMI unfolded over time. To generalize my understanding of these processes, I then analyzed large-scale media data about the restaurant industry using topic modeling. In this quantitative analysis, I …

The Role Of Family Endorsement In Venture Creation And Sustainability, Thomas Daniel White

Doctoral Dissertations

Entrepreneurship research has shown that family social support is an important factor in an entrepreneur’s venture creation and sustainability efforts, yet little is known about the nature and impact of family processes that occur prior to venture start, or how early endorsement of a venture impacts the entrepreneur. These processes are important to consider, because they may facilitate or inhibit ongoing family social support and influence the entrepreneur’s venture creation and sustainability decisions. Utilizing a family systems theoretical framework, I draw on theories of self-perception, social support and conservation of resources to address three issues. First, I introduce the construct …

Highly-Educated Immigrant Entrepreneurs' Location Decisions, Nastaran Simarasl

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I draw on theories from sociology, economics, and economic geography, namely ethnic enclave theory, location theory, and heterolocalism theory to investigate factors that highly-educated immigrant entrepreneurs take into account when they decide where to locate their start-up. In doing so, I use an experimental method, conjoint analysis, on a sample of first-generation graduate students at the University of Tennessee to examine the factors that highly-educated aspiring immigrant entrepreneurs take into account when deciding about their start-up location. This dissertation is one of the first studies to bring theories from other disciplines to provide a more comprehensive understanding …

The Family Ties That Bind: Essays That Examine And Extend The Microfoundations Of Socioemotional Wealth Theory, David Scott Jiang

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine and extend the microfoundations of socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory. While burgeoning research finds that a focus on SEW, or a controlling family’s stock of nonfinancial and affective utilities in a firm, predicts unique family firm outcomes, we know surprisingly little about emotion and family dynamic’s assumed causal roles in these unique outcomes. I address these theoretical needs with five related essays. In the first essay, I review the extant SEW literature, identifying unexamined cognitive, affective, motivational, and social assumptions in theoretical arguments and integrating psychological research to offer new directions for studying the microfoundations of …

Local Foods Purchasing In The Farmers' Market Channel: Value-Attitude-Behavior Theory, Christopher Thomas Sneed

Doctoral Dissertations

From farmers’ market booths to kitchen tables, demand for locally-produced foods has increased significantly over the last decade. Yet, despite increasing popularity of local foods, theoretically-based research of this topic has just begun.

This study fills this gap in literature and broadens the current research base by utilizing Value-Attitude-Behavior Theory to explore local foods purchasing in the farmers’ market channel. The impact of four values (food novelty, food safety, civic engagement, and environmental concern) on consumers’ attitudes regarding farmers’ market design perceptions, farmers’ market social perceptions, and local foods quality perceptions are examined. In turn, the impact of these attitudes …

Agency Theory And Stewardship Theory Integrated, Expanded, And Bounded By Context: An Empirical Investigation Of Structure, Behavior, And Performance Within Family Firms, Kristen Joie Madison

Doctoral Dissertations

Studies abound investigating whether agency or stewardship theory is more applicable within family firms. Both theories predict enhanced firm performance, but starkly contrast in behavioral assumptions and structural prescriptions. Agency theory assumes an economic model of man; agent behavior is based on self-interest and may conflict with the principal’s interest. Governance structures that control and monitor agents are prescribed to thwart opportunistic behavior and better align the goals of the principal and agent. Stewardship theory assumes a humanistic model of man; steward behavior is based on serving others and therefore will align with the principal’s interest. Governance structures that empower …

The Relationship Of Personality To Entrepreneurial Performance: An Examination Of Openness To Experience Facets, Adam R. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

The role of personality has resurfaced in entrepreneurship research. The results surrounding the broad personality traits have varied. Although openness to experience has been found to generally have a positive relationship with entrepreneurial intentions and performance (e.g., Zhao, Seibert, & Lumpkin, 2010), conflicting and inconsistent results have emerged (e.g., Baron & Markman, 2004; Ciaverella, Buchholtz, Riordan, Gatewood, & Stokes, 2004). Therefore, an in-depth look at the facets of openness to experience may offer additional information.

The present investigation used a sample of founder/owners and examined the facets of openness to: fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values. Specifically, it was …

Essays On Gross Receipts Taxes, Zhou Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation focuses on the incentives and economic effects of gross receipts taxes (GRTs) versus corporate income taxes (CITs). Conventional wisdom holds that GRTs are very poor tax instruments; however, several states have shown renewed interest in GRTs since 2002. An interesting question to ask is why states are reconsidering GRTs in spite of all criticisms. Are GRTs really as bad as what conventional wisdom says? There is little rigorous theoretical or empirical work on GRTs. My dissertation aims to help fill this gap by providing both theoretical and empirical analysis on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of GRTs versus …

Revisiting The Iceberg: A Study Of Technology, Self-Direction, And The Learning Projects Of Small Business Owners, John David Harrison

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine and describe the learning projects of a selected sample of small business owners in a community in the Southeastern United States. The study included the revision and modernization of Tough’s (1971) Learning Project Interview Schedule. A total of 35 small business owners were interviewed using a modified version of Tough’s Learning Project Interview Schedule. The schedule consisted of 10 learning project and seven demographic items that were adapted or created by a collaborative research team at the University of Tennessee using Tough’s (1971) Interview Schedule. Data revealed that participants had a …