Business Commons^™

Investigating U.S. Resident Perceptions Of Corporate Social Responsibility In Food And Agriculture, Carissa Jae Morgan

Open Access Theses

Corporations are prioritizing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by investing in and actively promoting their social practices. In the U.S. of the modern food supply chain creates a unique challenge for corporations to address concerns about social issues of consumers and non-consumers alike. This study is motivated by the need to better understand individuals’ perceptions of CSR as it pertains to the food supply chain. In April 2015 an online survey collected information from 1,201 U.S. residents with the objective of investigating individuals’ perceptions of relative importance of eight prominent CSR areas relevant to food and agriculture. Demographic, household consumption, …

A Framework For Organizational Performance Assessment In The Construction Industry, Zenith Rathore

Open Access Theses

Organizations have been trying to increase their efficiency and improve their performance in order to achieve their goals. Organizational success is determined by various factors that impact organizational performance. Construction industry is a project based industry which is extremely dynamic in nature. The need to identify the weak points and search solutions to improve performance of construction organization is extremely crucial. Previous research works have primarily focused on the measurement of financial or tangible assets. Industry has always focused on measure of project success. However, previous studies lack the understanding of qualitative factors and their combine effect on organizational performance. …

A Methodology For Cooperation Between Electric Utilities And Consumers For Microgrid Utilization Based On A Systems Engineering Approach, Franklin E. Pacheco Chiguano

Open Access Theses

In recent years, the energy market has experienced important challenges in its structure and requirements of its actors, such as the necessity for more reliable electric service, energy efficiency, environmental care practices, and the incorporation of decentralized power generation based on distributed energy resources (DER). Given this context, microgrids offer several advantages to the grid and its actors. However, few microgrid projects have been implemented, and the participation of electric utilities is lower than the expected. Hence, this research explores how electric utility - customer interactions can accommodate mutual benefits for both parties through the proposal of a Microgrid Reference …

A Lean Logistics Assessment Tool For Smes In The Manufacturing Sector, Diana Lorena Sanchez Ramirez

Open Access Theses

This study developed an assessment tool to rate the maturity of the current and desired states of lean logistics operations in small and medium enterprises. The tool consists of 48 best practices classified into 8 critical factors: Inventory, Transportation, Administration, Information Systems, Warehouse, Forecasting, Packaging and Supplier Network. Each of the best practices and critical factors were identified throughout a thorough literature review and comparative analysis between authors to define commonalities among them. Using gap analysis; this tool results in a SWOT matrix providing a roadmap for lean implementation. The resulting model was evaluated by subject matter experts in different …

Guidelines For Construction Companies To Decide Between Outsourcing And Self-Performing For Prefabricated Components, Sebastian Soto Ortiz

Open Access Theses

Prefabrication and modularization has been used in the construction industry for decades. It has recently made a resurgence worldwide providing increased productivity, safety, quality and construction schedule. This research has focused on the situation where a construction company has decided to use prefabrication and faces two possibilities, they either will self-perform or they will outsource the construction of the prefabricated components. The decision making process used by a construction company to determine whether to outsource or self-perform prefabricated components is examined and analyzed.

Prefabrication is an industrial process in which certain components are manufactured in a specialized facility. These items …

An Analysis On Causes Of Late Final Payment And Release Of Retainage: Electrical Subcontractors’ View, Xuejing Zhang

Open Access Theses

Using the survey approach, this study identified the underlying causes of late payments and release of retainage for electrical subcontractors, attempting to answer the questions, "What were the minimum, maximum and average delay days of final payment and release of retainage?", "What were the rank of factors in terms of significance on delaying final payment and release of retainage?", and "What were the rank of factors in terms of frequency on delaying final payment and release of retainage?" A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to about 150 professionals in electrical subcontractors. 29 reports were collected. Based upon the analysis …