Business Commons^™

Using Community Service Projects To Teach Leadership And Team-Building: Theoretical Foundations, Students' Reactions And Practical Considerations, Gilbert Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper discusses the theoretical foundations of utilizing Community Service Project (CSP) or service-learning to teach Leadership and Team-Building. It examines the students’ reactions to this innovative method of instruction. This is done through conducting a content analysis of students’ learning journals, in which students reflect on their CSP learning experiences. Two themes emerged from the data: (a) variety of learning experiences, and (b) impact of CSP experience. The data suggested that students derived a variety of learning experiences from the CSP. In addition, there were attitudinal and learning impacts associated with the CSP experiences. The paper also outlines some …

Experiential Learning Process: Exploring Teaching And Learning Of Strategic Management Framework Through The Winter Survival Exercise, Maheshkumar P. Joshi, Elizabeth B. Davis, Ravi Kathuria, C. Ken Weidner Ii

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This article examines an attempt to introduce experiential learning methods in a business strategy course. In organizational behavior and industrial/organizational psychology, experiential teaching methods have been so widely adopted that some authors have suggested dropping the distinction between experiential and traditional teaching. Although intuitively appealing, experiential methods have not yet become popular among professors teaching strategy to traditional-age undergraduate students. It seems that heavy reliance on case-based teaching has resulted in a lack of emphasis on experiential learning tools for strategic management. In this study, the Winter Survival Exercise was used to introduce, concisely and effectively, the strategic management framework …

Looking Beyond The Shipyard: Economic Development Challenges Of Southern Maine And Seacoast New Hampshire, Charles S. Colgan

Regional Studies

The threatened closure of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has spurred an intense examination of the future economic prospects for York County, Maine and Rockingham County, New Hampshire. This report provides the first integrated analysis of the shipyard’s effects on both the Maine and New Hampshire economies. The shipyard accounts for more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs across the two-state region. Over 80% of these jobs are in York County, with an additional 10% in Rockingham County and the balance spread through the rest of Maine and New Hampshire. The total jobs associated with the shipyard account for 3.5% of …

Defining The 'Social' In 'Social Entrepreneurship': Altruism And Entrepreneurship, Wee Liang Tan, John N. Williams, Teck Meng Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

What is social entrepreneurship? In, particular, what’s so social about it? Understanding what social entrepreneurship is enables researchers to study the phenomenon and policy-makers to design measures to encourage it. However, such an understanding is lacking partly because there is no universally accepted definition of entrepreneurship as yet. In this paper, we suggest a definition of social entrepreneurship that intuitively accords with what is generally accepted as entrepreneurship and that captures the way in which entrepreneurship may be altruistic. Based on this we provide a taxonomy of social entrepreneurship and identify a number of real cases from Asia illustrating the …

Introducing The Balanced Scorecard: Creating Metrics To Measure Performance, Andra Gumbus

WCBT Faculty Publications

This experiential exercise presents the concept of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and applies it in a university setting. The Balanced Scorecard was developed 12 years ago and has grown in popularity and is used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500 companies as a performance measurement and strategic management tool. The BSC expands the traditional financial measures into three other dimensions to capture a balanced approach to measure performance in an organization. These additional dimensions are as follows: Customer Focus, Competence/Employee Learning and Growth, and Operational Efficiency. The exercise uses an analogy of a race car driver who relies …

Too Little Or Too Much? Reexamining The Relationship Between Corporate Charitable Giving And Corporate Financial Performance, Heli Wang, Jaepil Choi, Jiatao Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

How do corporate charitable contributions affect corporate financial performance? Instrumental stakeholder theory posits that corporate giving can lead to high levels of corporate financial performance through improved stakeholder relations. In contrast, agency theory suggests that corporate giving diverts valuable corporate resources and inhibits corporate financial performance. Extant empirical studies that have examined the relationship found inconclusive results. We depart from and extend the existing literature in two main aspects. First, building upon the instrumental stakeholder argument and agency perspective, we develop the argument that there is an inverse U-shaped relationship between corporate charitable giving and corporate financial performance. Second, we …

Slack Resources And The Performance Of Privately Held Firms, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Empirical findings from publicly traded firms and behavioral arguments suggest a positive influence of resource slack on financial performance. While this area has remained unexplored in privately held firms, conceptual arguments indicate that resource constraints may enhance performance. Longitudinal data on 900 privately held firms confirm the differing influences of forms of slack on performance. Results indicate that a combination of behavioral and resource constraints arguments are necessary to explain the slack-performance relationship in privately held firms. The implications of these findings for theories of resources and entrepreneurship are discussed.

Ricardo Semler: Creating Organizational Change, Christopher York, Peter A. Maresco

WCBT Faculty Publications

A review of "Creating Organizational Change" by Ricardo Semler.

Why Is Management A Cliché?, Stefano Harney

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article introduces the term demotics of management by asking why so much management literature reads like a cliché. Typically this question has been approached by seeing the cliché as strategic. This article instead views the cliché as symptomatic. It marks a growing problem—how can management track labor out of the workplace and into the realm of social reproduction, a realm that is increasingly, with the tendency of immaterial labor, directly productive. This problem has produced not only the explosion of popular management literature, particularly in the United States, in the last 20 years, but also what might be called …

The Importance Of Leadership, Dorothy J. Mulcahy

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Overview Of Electronic Payment Systems In Nigeria: Strategic And Technical Issues., Margaret J. Hilili

Bullion

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of electronic payment system as it currently exists in Nigeria, discuss the strategic and technical issues as well as the monetary policy implications of the system, with focus on the needs of consumers. The paper is structured into five sections. Following the introduction, section II discusses the motivation for electronic payment system. Section III presents an overview and development of electronic payment system in Nigeria. Section IV analyzes the various strategic and technical issues in electronic payment systems as well as the monetary policy implications, while section V highlights the …

Public Policy And Industrialization In Nigeria., A. J. Adam

Bullion

This paper is concerned with evaluation of government policies on industrial development in Nigeria with specific reference to the effects of public policy on Nigeria's industrialization. Following an introduction is section two which examines conceptual and theoretical issues. Section three is the review of public policy in Nigeria. Section four focuses on policy evaluation and comparative analysis of experience of other countries. Section five provides the concluding remarks and recommendations. The paper observes that government has a role to play in the industrialisation process by providing infrastructures; help overcome market failures; assist develop money and capital markets; make economic information, …

Comparing F-16 Maintenance Scheduling Philosophies, Konstantinos Iakovidis

Theses and Dissertations

In the F-16 fighter community it is believed that the flying schedule can make or break a wing's maintenance effort. Nevertheless, there is no published scientific support behind many commonly used maintenance scheduling philosophies. The problem is that a generally accepted overall scheduling philosophy to improve the long term health of the fleet does not exist. The purpose of this research is tri-fold: to identify the most important scheduling philosophies, to identify the most meaningful metrics that capture the long term health of the fleet and maintenance effectiveness, and to compare the various philosophies using the performance measures to help …

Session Code: Eh The 21st Century Ideal Supply Management Organizational Format, At Least For 2005, Peter O'Reilly

Publications

The Problem:

What organizational format for the supply management function makes sense in your firm?

Why do we have a problem in the first place?

• The ever popular Silos
• Corporate culture
• Lack of senior management’s understanding of the supply management function
• The absence of a strong core procurement organization
• The dynamics of the ever changing world of mergers and acquisitions

Strategic Partnerships In Public Service, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Presents the process to a successful strategic partnership in public service. Importance of trust between the partners; Definition of mission, goals and objectives in the partnership; Establishment of relationship boundaries.

Achieving Growth In The Luxury Market, Peter A. Maresco, Bridget M. Lyons

WCBT Faculty Publications

Founded in 1928 as a luxury hotel-reservation processing company, The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd, which is headquartered in New York City, has evolved into a highly recognizable luxury brand within the luxury hotel market. The company has spent the last decade transforming itself from a reservation-processing company into a luxury powerhouse. Leading Hotels provides a compelling lesson in how to effectively achieve growth in the luxury market and today has positioned itself to meet its vision: To become the preeminent provider of products and services to luxury hotels and to the luxury marketplace. This article looks at how …

The Singapore Edge In India's Silicon Valley: New Insights?, Caroline Yeoh, David David

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Ownership Structure On Wage Intensity In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan, Parthiban David

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The authors studied the effect of ownership structure on human capital investments as indicated by wage intensity, defined as the ratio of expenditure on employee wages to sales, in a sample of 996 Japanese manufacturing firms during their economic recession of 1998-2002. They found that domestic shareholders, with interests beyond financial considerations, enhance wage intensity, especially when performance is low, and thereby safeguard human capital investments. Foreign shareholders with sole interest in financial returns have an opposite effect; they reduce wage intensity when firm performance is low.

The Effect Of Auburn University’S Business-Engineering-Technology Program On The Predisposition Towards Entrepreneurship In Business And Engineering Graduates, Paul Swamidass, Daniel Butler

Paul Swamidass

The unique Business-Engineering-Technology (BET) minor at Auburn University trains business and engineering students in teamwork and entrepreneurship. All eleven graduates of the first BET class (2003) and nineteen graduates from the second BET class (2004) were surveyed to assess their entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and abilities. Their responses were compared against the Auburn University norm for graduating seniors. The norm was developed using 254 responses from business and engineering students who were cohorts of the BET students. In this lock-step program, students design and develop three different products and matching businesses to exploit their products. Over the two years, they prepare …

Output Analysis And Comparison Of Deployment Models With Varying Fidelity, Matthew M. Gill

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the changes in insights that result from using different types of models to assess the capability of deploying the Stryker Brigade within specific timeline goals. The thesis uses as its primary base a study conducted in 2002 by USTRANSCOM to evaluate the ability of Stryker to meet stated deployment timeline goals. Specifically, the author compares the outputs from four different models as they change over three different deployment scenarios and 10 different routes. The study investigates the relationships among the outputs of spreadsheet models, spreadsheet models with elements of variability added, and low- and high-level discrete-event simulations. …

Evaluating Management Strategies For Automated Test Systems/Equipment (Ats/E): An F-15 Case Study, Jeremy A. Howe

Theses and Dissertations

The management of United States Air Force ATS/E presents a variety of issues that affect the long-term capability and mission readiness of weapon systems. Traditional procurement processes suggest that individual aircraft platform System Program Offices (SPOs) developed, improved and replaced ATE on an "as-required" basis. Increased obsolescence, however, and a concern for maintaining longer-term viability provided the necessary inertia for a movement towards the procurement and development of consolidated, common test equipment that would support multiple weapon systems. In 1998, the Air Force Chief of Staff directed HQ AFMC to establish a Common Support Equipment office to facilitate the combination …

The Effects Of Ownership And Capital Structure On Board Composition And Strategic Diversification In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The board of directors plays an important role in solving the agency problem between shareholders and management. This paper investigates the relationships between ownership and board structure with the diversification strategy of large Japanese firms. The results show that corporate nominee directors are associated with lower levels of product diversification of their investee firms. This suggests that nominee directors in large Japanese corporations see themselves representing specific interests and therefore investors should pay attention to board composition in order to assess the level of protection they can expect to receive. Even without any apparent agency problem with management, there remains …

Operational, Economic And Mission Elements In Not-For-Profit Organizations: The Case Of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James Belohlav

Publications – Dreihaus College of Business

No abstract provided.

Operational, Economic And Mission Elements In Not-For-Profit Organizations: The Case Of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James A. Belohlav

James A. Belohlav

No abstract provided.

Houses Of Straw, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

Straw bale building offers high performance at a low cost. Bale building, developed on the grasslands of Nebraska at turn of the last century, has been rediscovered. High insulation values and high interior thermal mass make straw bales a good choice for passive solar design.

The Attitudes Of Educators To Information Technology Adoption In Schools Settings, Manoj Maharaj, Wesley Govender

Manoj Maharaj

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Regional Innovation And Change: Path Dependency Or Regional Breakthrough?, Gerhard Fuchs, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

Rethinking Regional Innovation and Change is an edited volume bringing together papers from leading international scholars in the field of regional development and policy. Contributors to the book examine the interactions between path-dependent developments, institutions, and governance structures in influencing regional innovation capacity. The invariably complex interrelationships between technical and industrial development paths and regional institutions are explored, using cases from both highly developed and lagging regions. The book offers an assessment of the extent to which regional innovative capacity can be increased by strengthening, re-orientating, or creating institutions and policies and examines opportunities for reflexive practice at the regional …

Succeeding In A Cross-Disciplinary, International, Student Design-Team Project: Auburn University/University Of Plymouth Experience, Paul Swamidass, Bob Bulfin, David Grieve, Chetan Sankar, Venu Vulasa

Paul Swamidass

Globalization has turned product design upside down. Members of a single design team in multinational firms may be located in several countries such as the USA, UK, Italy, India and so on. It is a challenge to give engineering and business students a taste of this experience. Auburn University’s Business-Engineering-Technology (B-E-T) program, and the College of Engineering, University of Plymouth, participated in a joint effort to replicate real-life product design process with a mixture of engineering and business students. This paper describes the experience, its lessons and compares it with other attempts at multinational student design-team projects.

Outsourcing The Human Resource Function: Environmental And Organizational Characteristics That Affect Hr Performance, J. D. Lilly, D. A. Gray, Meghna Virick

Meghna Virick

A theoretical model is presented that identifies environmental and organizational characteristics that affect human resource (HR) performance in an organization. Specifically, we address the issue of when and under what circumstances does HR outsourcing contribute value to the firm by attempting to identify environmental and organizational characteristics that affect HR department performance and how HR outsourcing mediates that relationship. We propose that supplier competition in the HR provider market has a direct effect on the amount of HR outsourcing which in turn has a direct effect on HR performance. Environmental uncertainty (primary, competitive, and supplier) is proposed to moderate the …

Outsourcing The Human Resource Function: Environmental And Organizational Characteristics That Affect Hr Performance, J. D. Lilly, D. A. Gray, Meghna Virick

Faculty Publications

A theoretical model is presented that identifies environmental and organizational characteristics that affect human resource (HR) performance in an organization. Specifically, we address the issue of when and under what circumstances does HR outsourcing contribute value to the firm by attempting to identify environmental and organizational characteristics that affect HR department performance and how HR outsourcing mediates that relationship. We propose that supplier competition in the HR provider market has a direct effect on the amount of HR outsourcing which in turn has a direct effect on HR performance. Environmental uncertainty (primary, competitive, and supplier) is proposed to moderate the …