Business Commons^™

Don't Waste Your Time, Doug Leigh, Ryan Watkins

Doug Leigh

Commentary.

The Relationships Among Generativity, Values, Individual Differences, And Commitment To An Ideal Vision, Doug Leigh

Doug Leigh

Kaufman (2006a, 2011) defines Ideal Visions as measurable statements of the kind of world an organization, as well as its associates and external stakeholders, commits to help create for the future. This study investigated the relationships among several research-supported variables regarding personality aspects and individual characteristics with indicators of individuals’ motivation to achieve goals aimed at adding value to external clients and society. Indicators of generative beliefs, values, individual differences, and commitment to an Ideal Vision were examined in this study. Generativity (the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation), membership and activity in a formal civic organization, and …

A Scientific Dialogue: A Performance Accomplishment Code Of Professional Conduct, Doug Leigh, Ryan Watkins, Roger Kaufman

Doug Leigh

No abstract provided.

Alternate Models Of Needs Assessment: Selecting The Right One For Your Organization, Doug Leigh, Ryan Watkins, Roger Kaufman, William Platt

Doug Leigh

Needs assessment seems intuitively attractive to planners. Virtually all authors recommend that needs assessment be the first step in any organizational or human resource development intervention. Planners sensibly recognize the importance of building a foundation grounded in data-based needs, and see data produced by needs assessment as justifying organizational planning and accountability. They also see the usefulness of needs assessments for obtaining and allocating resources for projects. In their best use, needs assessments ensure that resources (Inputs) and methods (Processes) deliver useful results, that their value-added can be demonstrated. Unfortunately, the wide and varied usage of the term need often …

Performance Improvement: More Than Just Bettering The Here-And-Now, Doug Leigh, Ryan Watkins

Doug Leigh

No abstract provided.

Defining Your Own Sustainable Future, Jacob Johnsen

Jacob Johnsen, MSc

How do you create – and maintain – an attractive service portfolio, and how to compete in a shifting environment? In our changing world, survival is not a question of size, speed or coverage. You must be adaptive. Posts can find out where to adapt, by examining the changes in customer behaviour, changing demands and technological achievements. Volumes are shifting from letters to packets, and so far, courier companies have taken market share from posts. Jacob Johnsen looks at the current changes and gives some guidelines on how to set up pointers for an ever-changing direction.

Defining Your Own Sustainable Future, Jacob Johnsen

Jacob Johnsen, MSc

How do you create – and maintain – an attractive service portfolio, and how to compete in a shifting environment? In our changing world, survival is not a question of size, speed or coverage. You must be adaptive. Posts can find out where to adapt, by examining the changes in customer behaviour, changing demands and technological achievements. Volumes are shifting from letters to packets, and so far, courier companies have taken market share from posts. Jacob Johnsen looks at the current changes and gives some guidelines on how to set up pointers for an ever-changing direction.

Salesforce Compensation Plans Incorporating Multidimensional Sales Effort And Salesperson Efficiency, Sunil Erevelles, Indranil Dutta, Carolyn Galantine

Carolyn A Galantine CPA., PhD

Sales force compensation models are often constrained by the assumption that salesperson effort is unidimensional. Some models have extended this scenario to multiple products but retain the "single-effort" assumption. In addition, salesperson efficiency has been ignored. As selling is clearly multidimensional, we present a formulation of an agency model (MIPAM) that incorporates multidimensional sales effort as well as salesperson efficiency. Using the model, we also show that under certain assumptions, we can build the second-order condition of the agent's maximization into the principal-agent problem, instead of assuming it, as has been done in the past.

Bringing Football Back To Los Angeles, Gabriel Leiner

Gabriel Leiner

Identifying a suitable parcel for a large scale professional football stadium in the greater Los Angeles, CA area, which does not conflict with current uses, environmental protection codes, or airspace rights, and also has adequate transportation access and nearby populated neighborhoods.

Cultural Implications Of Customer Satisfaction Differences Of Help Desks In The Us And China, William H. Bleuel, Terry Young, Wayne Gertmenian

William H. Bleuel

Customer satisfaction has become a very important aspect of business management in the high technology market. Companies that provide products and services world-wide often are concerned that customer satisfaction may be impacted by cultural differences. This study examines measures of customer satisfaction in two areas (China and the United States) to determine whether or not there is a difference in satisfaction scores provided by Help Desks. The trend in overall satisfaction over the seven year period from 2005 through 2011 is increasing in China faster than in the United States. Correlations between variously measured parameters of Help Desks and overall …

Cross-Cultural Customer Satisfaction Of High Technology Companies In China, India, And Japan, William Bleuel, Darrol Stanley

William H. Bleuel

Customer satisfaction has become a very important aspect of business management in the high technology market. Companies that provide products and services world-wide often are concerned that customer satisfaction may be impacted by cultural differences. This study examines measures of customer satisfaction in China, India and Japan to determine whether or not there is a difference in satisfaction scores for field service, depot repair and help desk. The statistical results at a 5% confidence level indicate there is a difference in customer perception in all service support areas. The results clearly indicate that companies need to understand these differences in …

Leadership And Crisis Management In Modern Organizations, Chris D. Bellamy

Dr. Chris D. Bellamy

Leadership in modern organizations is complex. This research identifies how leaders in modern organizations can effectively deliver results through crisis management, while maintaining organizational culture. The author addresses leadership through organizational culture, the actions leaders must take, corporate policies and practices. In addition, this research directly contributes to leading organizations through crisis management and maintaining organizational culture today.

Barriers To International Business, Chris D. Bellamy

Dr. Chris D. Bellamy

There are many barriers that companies face when attempting to expand operations on a global scale. This paper identifies four barriers businesses must overcome, and the strategies they can deploy to overcome these barriers. The author justifies support for these strategies with current research for each barrier. The paper also identifies and applies current research which document the strategic impact for the four barriers.

"First Of It's Kind", Adenike Oyebanjo

Adia Coleman

Practice Lean! Implementing Technology-Driven Lean Six Sigma In A Law Firm, Frank A. Urbanic

frank a urbanic

No abstract provided.

Evolving Chineseness, Ethnicity And Business: The Making Of Ethnic Chinese As A 'Market-Dominant Minority' In Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Coping With Change - Understanding Ethnic Chinese Business Behavior, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.

Under The Rust Belt Revealing Innovation In Northeast Ohio, Thomas Bacher

Thomas Bacher

Many areas of the Midwest faced economic challenges after large manufacturing industries, that once operated with three shifts, cut back or went out of business completely. Northeast Ohio was not immune to this downturn and experienced major declines in its population base and tax revenue streams. How could the area recover? This work looks at the post-manufacturing business climate in Northeast Ohio whose major cities, Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown, were faced with re-inventing themselves and their industrial bases. Using an interview format, the book details how entrepreneurs saw opportunities to develop services and products in the area. Their stories illuminate …

Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Bother?, Lars Isaksson, Timothy Kiessling, Michael Harvey

Lars Isaksson

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a new concept, but unfortunately has been defined in so many ways, it is often misinterpreted. In fact it has had 40 years to evolve from a somewhat infant concept to a successful managerial tool to build a company's reputation in the global market arena. Corporate social responsibility has become corporate strategic responsibility - an imperative element of corporate global business strategies. Many leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, executives and politicians now recognize CSR's potential for differentiation and positioning in the global marketplace. In the 21st century, we find CSR to have a remarkable acceptance among …

Family Firms And Entrepreneurship: Contradiction Or Synonym?, Sascha Kraus, Justin Craig, Clay Dibrell, Stefan Mark

Justin B. Craig

Extract: This Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (JSBE) Special Issue was motivated by increasing intellectual curiosity from within the entrepreneurship academic community to study entrepreneurial phenomenon in a family business context. Family enterprises dominate the commercial landscape in all economies, and interest in the unique challenges facing this business genre is growing. In many family firms, ownership and management are maintained across several generations, and a key challenge for long-term survival is to sustain the entrepreneurial spirit of the founding generation of entrepreneurs (Littunen and Hyrsky, 2000). All firms regularly need to renew their way of doing business in …

Intangible Capital In A Real Business Cycle Model, Kashif Malik, Syed Ali, Ahmed Khalid

Ahmed Khalid

Recent empirical studies have shown that intangible capital plays an important role in explaining productivity gains that have occurred during the last two decades. By introducing intangible capital in an otherwise standard theoretical real business cycle model, this paper aims to provide a theoretical foundation of the empirical findings. Our results indicate that investment in intangible capital is pro-cyclical. Both transitory aswell as permanent productivity shocks increase investment in intangible capital. However, in case of a permanent technology shock we learn that firms allocate more labor and physical capital to the creation of intangible capital which increases future profits at …

Teaching Llcs Through A Problem-Based Approach, Michelle M. Harner, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

Case studies and case simulations can be used to teach LLCs with an eye toward training business lawyers. These tools can be used in the traditional four-credit Business Associations (BA) course to supplement traditional teaching materials with mini-case studies that accent and apply analysis of primary legal sources. Alternatively, case studies and case simulations can be the centerpiece of a specialized course on LLCs. We discuss both approaches in this short essay.

Deal Deconstructions, Case Studies, And Case Simulations: Toward Practice Readiness With New Pedagogies In Teaching Business And Transactional Law, Michelle M. Harner, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

In this short commentary, we explore the use of two interrelated pedagogical methods for teaching transactional and business law. The first method is deal deconstruction, which analyzes the set of final deal documents and outcomes. This method is backward-looking, conducting a post-mortem on business transactions and analyzing the parties’ choices memorialized in the agreement against the legal and financial alternatives. The second method involves case studies and simulations, which are commonly seen in business schools. This method is forward-looking, exposing students to the uncertainties and situational contexts of doing deals and deal-related litigation. Together, these complementary methods help students understand …

Accountability And Stewardship Of Family Business Entities, Keith Duncan, Ken Moores

Keith Duncan

This chapter explores whether current accounting technology fulfils the stewardship and accountability information needs of family business owners. As the influences on contemporary accounting are both conceptual and contextual we frame our discussion in terms of both the knowledge foundations of accounting, as informed by various conceptions of the firm, and stakeholder theory. We posit that if prevailing conceptions of the firm impact the knowledge foundations of accounting, and subsequently the nature and form of accounting practice, then it is the conceptions of influential stakeholders that can define the accounting change agenda and affect contemporary accounting practice. We use extant …

The Invisible Hand Of Business Strategy Processes: Culture, Power And Politics In Stragegy In A Developing Country, Ananda Wickramasinghe

Ananda Wickramasinghe

This paper argues the reasons for limited compatibility of western strategic approaches with production relations in Sri Lankan tea plantation sector from findings of case study research. Reasons for this include the great diversity within the sector in relation to key issues including caste and class, ethnic groups and their political groupings, and in particular to modes of production which span traditional, capitalist and state capitalist models. Managers in developing countries struggle to assimilate such prescriptive perspectives and frameworks into their firms in response to external pressures. This suggests strategy research needs to be informed beyond generalised strategy and national …

Further Developments In Knowledge Business Modelling - An Inverse Extension Of The Quality Triangle, Lee Styger

Lee Styger

Business Modelling has traditionally been poorly executed leading to. This has led to the introduction of partial analysis and detrimental outcomes. There is a long held axiom that, since all business are different, then all business systems are different and as such, no two rules are the same. Early experimentation in "chunking down" classic business models has demonstrated that it is possible to reduce complex concepts into single, almost binary, rules. This paper discusses further developments of the Quality Triangle moving towards Knowledge Business Modelling.

Repositioning The Business Of Sustainable Manufacturing, Lee Styger

Lee Styger

The current contextual reference of sustainable manufacturing has typically been influenced by contemporary and academic literature to a point where a myopic view could be said to exist, that places the concept of sustainability outside that of commercial operating principles. Furthermore, recent decisions concerning supply integration and commissioning are typically being based around issues such as short term risk mitigation, and early steps towards developing protocols focused on corporate social responsibility introduce further pressure into businesses, that could lead to a significant hiatus in operating efficiency. Recent research has indicated that in many cases, supply networks are fragmented and lack …

The Design Of Teaching Protocols That Develop Creativity, Innovation And Innovative Thinking Within Higher Education Business Schools - A Transfer Of Best Practice From Design And Engineering Education Principles, Lee Styger

Lee Styger

Typically, the construct of innovation within business education has focused around the concept of developing innovative and creative leaders of business. This is particularly so in the higher educational fields and specifically so within the context of the global market positioning of many MBA programs currently. However, in many cases, it would appear that business schools are typically embarking on a journey of curriculum development from the point of the core teaching of business methodologies (i.e. silo thinking), rather than incorporating best practice from other disciplines such as those found in leading design and engineering education, where, for example, applied …

An Identification Of The Current Constraints Of Knowledge Business Modelling As A Strategic Decision Making Tool, Lee Styger

Lee Styger

Business models are widely used and it might be argued, have an important role to play in assisting users to develop, plan and analyse their organisations better. Typically, many business models are however poorly understood and executed by their users. This often leads to inappropriate decision making and the wrong strategic direction being implemented. There are complex and interrelated factors for the poor execution of business modelling, however, some of the key influencing factors include, lack of training, a disassociation of the graphical representation from the narrative, and the lack of formal rules in the use of the business models. …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Research Management In Australian Commerce And Business Faculties: The View From Within, Mark Rix, David Aylward, Rob Macgregor, John Glynn

Mark Rix

No abstract provided.