Business Commons^™

Unpacking Athletics: An Exploration Of Identity Development For Division I Women College Athletes, Kathleen E. Scanlon

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explored how former Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women athletes made meaning of their undergraduate experience and how it influenced their post-graduate lives. The study research questions focused on three areas: a) how participants constructed meaning from their athletic experiences and what role those experiences had in shaping their identity; b) how the participants made sense of the various systems they experienced and what bearing various identities had on their meaning making; and c) what concrete knowledge, skills and qualities participants felt they possessed today that they attribute to their intercollegiate athletic experiences.

Three semi-structured interviews …

Two Essays On Corporate And Institutional Investors’ Usage Of Options, Financial Constraints, And Firm Performance, Bharat Patil

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation consists of two major parts. Essay I examines the relationship between the firm’s derivative risk management and its financial constraint. Firms face a wedge between their internal and external financing for their investments. I test whether this wedge reduces the firm’s financial constraint when it hedges using interest rate, foreign currency, and commodity derivatives. Using a difference-in-difference framework around the implementation of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 123R, this study shows a strong causal relationship between hedging intensity and the financial constraint. I find that net debt increases for the derivative hedging firms, on the other hand, cash holding …

Commonality In Two-Dimensions: An Empirical Investigation, Zhaoque Zhou

Dissertations - ALL

In this thesis, I follow Hasbrouck and Seppi (2001)’s work and use reduced-rank regression to model the commonality in Chapter Two. The literature on the study of return commonality generally attributes its source to the order flow. But I find that return and order flows are endogenous and use the new exogenous Twitter sentiment dataset to show that return commonality may be due to sentiment and attention. Furthermore, I observe the non-linear (linear) relationship between sentiment (attention) and return commonality. Finally, I may export the non-linear relationship using the same reduced-rank regression framework in future research.

I also follow Korajczyk …

Immigrant Entrepreneurs And The Contingent Value Of Personal Legitimacy, Kurian George

Dissertations - ALL

Despite growing recognition of the importance of the founder’s personal legitimacy for successful venturing, various questions remain with respect to what founder legitimacy is and how it is achieved. My review of the legitimacy literature reveals that founder legitimacy can be conceptualized as both a characteristic and a process, and that the entity signaling the founder’s legitimacy can be the founder, an organization, or even an industry or region. My review also shows that the expertise needed for founder legitimacy is taken for granted in most studies. To develop a better understanding of how founders acquire and signal personal legitimacy, …

Startup Futures: Entrepreneurs, Investors And Imaginaries Of Care In Global India, Ipshita Ghosh

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines the emerging cultures of venture capital-driven, technology-infused startups in India and the multiple ways in which they shape the nation's entrepreneurship landscape. Based on findings drawn from 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork with Delhi's startups, I argue that entrepreneurship serves as a cultural and ideological formation that creates a new regime of values and reshapes our social, political, and civil life. In this sense, I suggest that previous studies on entrepreneurship which focus purely on its economic impacts (or lack thereof) tend to undervalue the long-lasting cultural transformations created through it. One of the primary ways in …

Passive Institutional Ownership, Firm Disclosure, And Post-Earnings Announcement Drift, Jingxin Hu

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation consists of four chapters. Chapter one is the introduction. Chapter two examines the impact of passive institutional ownership on firm disclosure. Passive institutional investors favor more information to minimize monitoring and trading costs. However, passive institutions' diverse holdings make it costly to collect individual firms' private information, so they demand more public information. Managers are likely to supply more firm material information because passive institutions can exert influence by using their sizeable ownership stake. More firm disclosure is related to a better firm information environment and higher stock liquidity. To test the hypothesis, I choose the S&P 500 …

Essays On Supply Chain Optimization: Operational Decisions With Corporate Social Responsibility Implementation And Live-Streaming Channel Introduction, Haiying Yang

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation, we study a supplier's operational decisions for supply chain optimization considering corporate social responsibility implementation and live- streaming channel introduction. Both essays start from analytical models that are inspired by observations, and we explore how different parameters affect the supplier's decisions through extensive numerical studies. In the first essay, we notice that cost auditing is becoming an increasingly important tool to improve supply chain efficiency and mitigate the influence of information asymmetry. We study how cost auditing indirectly influences retailer and supplier's behavior in social responsibility. We also discuss the potential negative social responsibility externalities of conducting …

Essays On Strategies For Increasing Repayment Rates Of Digital Microloans, Alain Rutayisire Shema

Dissertations - ALL

Access to credit can act as a highly effective tool for poverty reduction and economic growth. The ability to borrow increases the propensity of low-income people to start and maintain businesses, educate their children and withstand financial shocks. These factors, in turn, can help them to move out of poverty and lead to more sustainable economic development. However, traditional financial institutions have inherent limitations that have impeded their ability to serve the poor.

Digital lenders are able to leverage the widespread adoption of mobile phones and mobile money to extend credit quickly and conveniently to more people, especially in developing …

A More Efficient And Effective Objective Measure Of Financial Disclosure Quality: Omissions Of Seven Key Financial Statement Variables, Ying Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation research includes three Chapters. Chapter One proposes a new and simple measure of financial reporting quality. Chapter Two and Chapter Three apply this new measure to examine the association between financial reporting quality and firms' internal governance issues, such as internal control quality and a possible outcome of internal control weakness (ICW), financial restatements.In Chapter One of the thesis, I propose a parsimonious, theory-based and empirically-supported measure of missing variables, REPORT. Chen et al. (2015) proposes a measure of disclosure quality, DQ, based on missing financial statement variables. DQ includes hundreds of items and is complex to program. …

Essays On Ipo Cycles And Windows Of Opportunity, Meng Chen

Dissertations - ALL

The dissertation consists of two chapters regarding private firms financing in the capital market. The first chapter explores the long-term failure rate of private firms that issued initial public offerings (IPOs) in the public capital market. We study busted, or failed, IPOs to examine the underwriter certification hypothesis and windows of opportunity hypothesis in the new issues market. Extensive literature pointed out that time-varying characteristics of information asymmetry might induce windows of opportunity in capital market when information asymmetry is relatively low. During windows of opportunity, private firms can issue public equity with lower information costs and more favorable terms. …

Three Essays On Regulation In Healthcare And Pharmaceutical Markets, Lu Liu

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how regulation and deregulation impacts hospital performance, its persistence effect and the different impact on drug markets. The authorities designed programs and policies to regulate hospitals and pharmaceutical markets, aiming at improving hospital performance and control drug prices, while in reality, the programs and policies generate consequences, the effect varies across different types of the hospitals and drugs.

The dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay proposes a propensity score matching-difference in difference framework of program evaluation of Value Based Purchasing program. This framework first applies the propensity score matching method …

Creating Sustainable Brands: How The Green 4 Ps Influence Consumers' Attitudes Toward Brands, Julia Dipersio

Honors Capstone Projects - All

I study the important brand-building relationship between consumer characteristics and the green 4 Ps that has been neglected in the literature: how the green marketing mix can work simultaneously to influence a consumer’s attitude toward a green brand with the goal of understanding how a green brand image is created. This study considers Information Integration Theory and Social Judgment Theory to assess how attitudes can be formed through the green 4 Ps. I collected data through a Qualtrics online survey from 185 respondents. Subsequent regression analyses in SPSS revealed certain strong relationships between select consumer characteristics and a positive attitudinal …

The Investment Potential Of Modern Hip Hop Artists, Kyle Garuccio

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Popular modern hip-hop artists are often seen flaunting custom jewelry, pricey cars, expensive personal collections, and other highly-depreciative luxury items. The influence of hip hop culture on the spending habits of its members is responsible for these traditional portrayals. Members of the hip hop community feel the need to mold to the norms established by its history and momentous idols. If those who identify themselves as members of the hip hop community invested their money in the financial markets and instruments, they may have the opportunity to grow their income at a much larger rate. I propose possible market investment …

The Golden Ticket: How Blockchain Technology Can Be Implemented Into Event Ticketing, Jack Singer

Honors Capstone Projects - All

When the group/individual named Satoshi Nakamoto first conceptualized blockchain in 2008, it served as the underlying foundation to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. In the years following, cryptocurrencies alike experiences massive gains in profitability; however, after the bubble had burst organizations began to look at the technology from a more academic standpoint. It was quickly found out that there is a massive application for blockchain in almost all sectors of industry from bulk stores (Walmart) to banking (IBM). This paper will explore how blockchain technology can be implemented into event ticketing, more specifically concerts. The current landscape of the industry is under …

Help Wanted: Inside The Role Of A Community Development Lending Policy Editor, Robert Spichiger

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Students receiving professional degrees are often less motivated than their peers to graduate from the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University. One possible explanation for this is that these students are discouraged by the requirement of writing an academic thesis. To remedy this issue and motivate more students from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management to graduate from the Honors Program, this project aims to serve as an example to future business students of one possible way to structure a professional thesis.

This paper is a critical reflection of the skills one develops while working at a …

The Future Of The Renewable Fuel Standard, Jacob Urban

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Persistent uncertainty about the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard led to an analysis of the policy’s language and the varying degrees of political support for the program in the Senate. Applying probabilities to the various conceived scenarios resulted in a 40% change that the program continues in its current form in perpetuity. The report finds that a Democratic Congress would implement legislation that focuses on the policy’s missed environmental goals. Conversely, a Republican Congress would lead to the most uncertainty in the market due to competing views of the RFS within the program. With a narrow Republican majority, legislation …

The Rhetoric Of Blockchain Technology, Mira Kohli

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The purpose of this honor’s thesis is to consider the rhetoric about blockchain technology. It is recognizable that blockchain technology does not share a common definition, method, or general understanding; this absence or opacity influences its use in institutions and industries. To advance my thesis about the rhetoric of blockchain, I developed a framework to analyze and critique blockchain technology use. Then, I applied this framework to two articles that discuss the adaptation of blockchain in the financial industry. My findings were that advocates for the technology are influencing its intended use. The rhetoric surrounding the technology is why the …

Humanitarian Aid Logistics: Response Strategies In The 2015 Refugee Crisis, Molly O'Connell

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Humanitarian aid logistics is an emerging field that applies principles of supply chain management and logistics to the humanitarian relief sector. This thesis explores humanitarian aid logistics strategies in the context of the 2015 Refugee Crisis. An unprecedented number of refugees sought asylum in Europe beginning in 2015, where European officials and humanitarian organizations were largely unprepared to provide for them. The 2015 Refugee Crisis offers a unique perspective on humanitarian aid logistics because it requires both short-term and long-term response strategies. Through the framework of management science, a subfield of supply chain management, and logistics, this thesis creates a …

Adhd Symptoms, Impulsivity And Entrepreneurial Action Three Essays, Wei Yu

Dissertations - ALL

Anecdotal evidence of successful entrepreneurs with ADHD, along with books on the strengths of ADHD individuals, have drawn people’s attention towards the potential benefits of this mental disorder. Instead of viewing those individuals as inattentive, impulsive and hyperactive, the very characteristics may become assets in certain environments where creativity, quick action and experimentation are needed. Entrepreneurship represents such an environment that has been long recognized by scholars and practitioners alike. First, entrepreneurship is an uncertain journey full of obstacles, which requires potential entrepreneurs to overcome the fear and worry and resolve the uncertainty through entrepreneurial actions. Second, compared with existing …

Towards Understanding Entrepreneurship’S Role In Our Common Future: Essays From The Sustainability-Entrepreneurship Nexus, Kiven Pierre

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this dissertation is to facilitate a better understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurship and attainment of sustainable development. Drawing on prior work, I present three related essays that together provide both an evaluation and extension of research at the intersection of the entrepreneurship and sustainable development concepts – herein referred to as the Sustainability-Entrepreneurship Nexus. In addition, the findings from these essays provide some interesting research opportunities for management and entrepreneurship scholars alike.

Essay 1 provides a literature review of extant research within the S-E Nexus. Focusing on the composition of conceptual and empirical articles, and the …

Business Failure And Entrepreneurship: Three Essays On The Effects Of The Cost Of Failure, Chong Kyoon Lee

Dissertations - ALL

When entrepreneurs encounter business failure, they have to bear the financial, emotional, and social cost of failure. Prior research on the effects of these costs has focused mainly on entrepreneurial exit context or on the quantity of new firms. Moreover, these studies suggest to policy makers to establish institutions to lower the costs of failure with the aim of increasing entrepreneurial activities. However, this dissertation seeks to improve our understanding by providing more extensive and fine-grained assessments of the effects of the cost of business failure in entrepreneurship contexts. The first essay in this dissertation conducts a systematic review regarding …

Voluntary Adoption Of Internal Audit By Nasdaq Firms And Its Impact On Financial Reporting, Omar Watts

Dissertations - ALL

While regulators recognize internal audit as an important governance function, the recent rejection by managers of NASDAQ firms of a proposal that would require NASDAQ listed firms to have an internal audit function indicates that management may not have the same regard for internal audit and may be unclear regarding internal audit’s value. Using hand-collected data for a sample of firms that have and have not voluntarily adopted an internal audit function, I run regressions to identify the impact of internal audit adoption on financial reporting and audit fees. I also identify the factors that drive the adoption decision. I …

Essays In Corporate Finance, Lea H. Stern

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation consists of three chapters in corporate finance and private equity. Chapter 1, “Incentives of Private Equity General Partners from Future Fundraising”, co-authored with Ji-Woong Chung, Berk Sensoy and Michael Weisbach, studies the incentives of private equity general partners (GPs). Lifetime incomes of GPs are affected by their current funds’ performance not only directly, through carried interest profit-sharing provisions, but also indirectly by the effect of the current fund’s performance on GP’s abilities to raise capital for future funds. In the context of a rational learning model, which we show better matches the empirical relations between future fundraising and …

Heterogeneity In Institutional Context And Its Impact On Initial Public Offerings And Corporate Social Responsibility, Gokce Serdar

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates the impact of institutional heterogeneity, which arises due to variations in institutional context, on a market and a non-market transaction. It draws from institutional theory and organizational institutionalism, and contributes to organization theory, corporate social responsibility, gender, and initial public offering literatures. In the two chapters that make up this dissertation, I theorize and empirically show that the institutional context varies not only between countries or groups of countries, but also domestically; and this variation has a statistically significant and economically meaningful impact on organizations. In the first chapter of this dissertation I focus on a market …

Trading Dynamics In A Fragmented Market, Krzysztof Herman

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation, we study the effect of recent regulatory and technological changes on trading

dynamics. Advances in communication and computing technologies have made millisecond

latencies as the new trading standard and have resulted in a new era of automated trading. The

introduction of Reg-NMS (Regulation National Market System, implemented in 2007) has set

strict rules for the access and removal of liquidity from the fragmented US equity market, de

facto linking the trading activities across trading venues. These transformations have not only

changed how equity markets function but also how market participants interact with the market

and among themselves. …

Total Immersion: Virtual Reality's Path To Mass Adoption, Joshua Daghir

Honors Capstone Projects - All

With the release of devices such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Google Daydream in 2016, virtual reality seems poised to take over the tech and media landscape. Professional estimates of the projected popularity of these devices span extremely wide ranges, and many of these predictions fall victim to a self-serving bias. The purpose of this research is to identify the variables that affect the spread of the use of virtual reality, and to analyze how the characteristics of modern virtual reality relate to these variables. The framework used to identify and assess these variables comes from Everett Rogers’s …

Intrusive Or Beneficial: Do Corporate Cell Phones Affect Workplace Obligation?, Jamie Gelberg

Honors Capstone Projects - All

As mobile devices have crept into our personal lives, they have become a staple in professional’s lives as well. While these devices have made individuals better at instant communication, does this affect work-life balance? This paper aims to address this question through literature review, two primary data sources and an overall analysis. The target audience of this paper are employees with corporate cell phones and executives making decisions on mobile phone policies for their company or organization although, anyone can read it if they are interested in how technology influences daily routines.

When The Ultimate Goal Is Running Yourself Out Of Business: The Extent To Which For-Profit Strategic Management Tools Apply To The Nonprofit Sector, Haley Mcdonnell

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Competitive advantage is important to any entity committed to success in its respective space. However, competitive advantage – and competition in general – becomes a complex concept when applied to a context like the nonprofit sector so often marked by cooperation and collaboration. This research explores the gap in availability of applicable strategic management tools, like competitive advantage frameworks, between the for-profit and nonprofit realms. This research draws on 20 interviews conducted with nonprofit executives around the United States and compares the findings with literature currently available about the nonprofit context and competitive advantage. A framework of nonprofit competitive advantage …

Preserving The Past: The Future Of Museums, Stephanie Cox

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project explores the future of the museum industry and seeks to examine the ways in which the industry has changed to adapt to the current competitive environment. It explores the increasing competitiveness inside the industry and the growing concentration of funding that has resulted in an extremely high percentage of unfunded museums.

The strategies that can be effectively employed to ‘modernize’ a museum are examined and several living history museums that have employed these strategies are used as examples of their relative effectiveness/ineffectiveness. An analysis of how the museum industry has morphed over time to create these mega-museums which …

Essays On Global Sourcing Under Uncertainty, Shahryar Gheibi

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation, we study the sourcing policies of global corporations and determine the key drivers of the procurement decisions under different types of uncertainties.

The first essay explores the impact of exchange-rate and demand uncertainty on sourcing decisions of a multinational firm which engages in global sourcing through capacity reservation contracts. The focus of this essay is cost, which is known to be the main driver of global sourcing practices. We investigate the impact of cost uncertainty caused by exchange-rate fluctuations on procurement decisions, and identify the conditions that result in single and dual sourcing policies. Our analysis indicates …