Business Commons^™

A Discourse On Entrepreneurial Identity : Three Essays., Krishna P. Poudel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation provides theoretical insights on individual level entrepreneurial identity in three inter-related essays, drawing on multiple theories and disciplines. In the first essay, I advance a dual-process model of identity development, contributing to the debates in the broad identity literature. I articulate that the intrinsic prospection of identity is another fundamental process of identity formation, besides the social construction of identity, the prevalent notion in the literature. I propose a comprehensive conceptual framework of entrepreneurial identity. On the basis of this conceptual framework, I explain that there are within-group and between-group variations in the entrepreneurial identity of different types …

The Effect Of Infrastructure Changes On Railway Operations., Martin J.R. Schmidt 1966-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper makes use of standard simulation programs in combination with the tools of applied statistics to simulate railway operations. The purpose of the use of this tool is to evaluate and compare different possible kinds of railway infrastructure, like different types of signaling procedures, different network configuration or operational procedures. A railway system is a logistic network and because of the demand for improved railway operation, much work has been undertaken lately in this scientific field. However the author postulates the hypothesis based on a literature review that in a lot of these works there is a lack of …

Roles And Functions Of Organizational Ombuds Officers In The United States, Dana M. Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Organizational ombuds officers have worked in corporate America for nearly fifty years. This was an exploratory study of ombuds officers in the United States that utilized direct interviews to gather data from seven ombuds officers in large organizations. A qualitative approach compared roles of these ombuds officers to roles of other ombuds officers working in the United States. Roles examined included: investigatory, advocacy, assisting, and regulatory roles. The results demonstrated that a majority of ombuds officers worked in an assisting role. Ombuds officers may provide better information to organizations if they employ a four frame structure to track issues brought …

A Social Cognitive Perspective On Opportunity Evaluation., Trayan Kushev

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Very few topics in entrepreneurship have received as much attention as the entrepreneurial process. It consists of the discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities to create future goods and services. Evaluation is at the center of this process because it follows discovery and is the main precursor of the decision to exploit an opportunity. However, we know very little of the factors informing evaluation decisions. Furthermore, research on the topic is limited in that it mostly examines either opportunity-based or individual-based factors in simple models of evaluation. Of course, evaluation decisions are more sophisticated and include a plethora of other …

Is That An Opportunity? : A Multilevel Investigation Of The Individual-Opportunity Nexus And Opportunity Beliefs., Eric Shaunn Mattingly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Early entrepreneurial action focuses on opportunities and involves two distinct evaluative phases: (1) recognizing that something is an opportunity for somebody and (2) deciding whether or not one wants to pursue exploitation of a particular opportunity. Scholars primarily explain the first of these phases using individual differences. However, entrepreneurial action involves the nexus of opportunities and individuals. In my dissertation, I examine the independent effects of opportunity differences on opportunity recognition as well as the degree to which they are contingent on individual-level constructs. Specifically, I examine this phenomenon in the context of technology commercialization. I use analogical problem solving …

Stakeholder Perceptions Of A University Response To Crisis, Katherine M. Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to contribute to current theory-driven research in crisis communication by examining the perceptions of multiple stakeholder groups to a university crisis response strategy. Two main questions were examined in this dissertation. The first question attempted to determine if a significant difference existed between stakeholder groups and their perception of university reputation, responsibility for the crisis, and potential supportive behaviors toward the university following the university’s response to a crisis. The second asked if Coombs’s Situational Crisis Communication Theory is a practical application for universities.

The participants were from 4 stakeholder groups associated with a …

Entrepreneurial Decision-Making Under Risk : Prospect Theory And Dual-Process Theory., Dalong Ma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research addresses the question of why some people become entrepreneurs whereas others do not. The debate has been going on for decades in entrepreneurship. In this dissertation, I address this question by decomposing it into two related questions. The first question is whether entrepreneurs make different decisions compared to non-entrepreneurs when they are facing the same opportunities under risk. The second question is whether these differences in decision-making (if any) are due to the natural proclivity of entrepreneurs themselves. To identify the differences of entrepreneurial decision-making between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, this study investigates the nexus between entrepreneurs and opportunities …

How Do Individual Factors Influence Moral Decision Making In Entrepreneurship? : The Role Of Self-Construal, Temporal Construal And Moral Identity., Shanshan Qian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Some entrepreneurs are often perceived to do almost anything to succeed and pursue self-interests while breaking moral and ethical standards. This is particularly severe when the ventures are at the early stage because entrepreneurs face scarce resources, high uncertainty and a competitive environment. It is noted that entrepreneurs' behavior of conforming business ethics and morality is profound for entrepreneurs’ firms viability. Thus, this dissertation employs self-construal theory and construal level theory and identifies how entrepreneurs’ cognitive development influences entrepreneurs to make moral decisions. In addition, I address the role of entrepreneurs’ moral identity in the focal relationships. Data were collected …

Interactive Data Visualization In Accounting Contexts: Impact On User Attitudes, Information Processing, And Decision Outcomes, Oluwakemi Ajayi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2009, The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a mandate requiring public companies to provide financial information to the SEC and on their corporate Web sites in an interactive data format using the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). This dissertation consists of three separate, but interrelated studies exploring issues related to interactive data visualization in financial reporting contexts. The first study employs theories in information systems (task-technology fit and the technology-performance chain model) and cognitive psychology (cognitive load) to examine the link between characteristics of interactive data visualization and task requirements in a financial analysis context, and …

Managerial Process Of Discount Decision-Making In The Lodging Industry: The Role Of Human Agency, Seung Hyun Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Management faces a paradox in managing discrepancies between actual demand and expected demand in daily operations, thereby requiring constant adjustments in pricing under the supervision of management in the short term. The purpose of this study is to determine how discount choices are created and to understand information processing related to the pricing and discounting decision-making process as well as narrating the events, stages, and cycles of choices made by hotel managers. This study also determines the role of human judgment based on contextual factors in the decision-making process. This mixed methods research design consists of three steps: observation, classification, …

The State Of The Anti-Union Address: A Rhetorical Critique Of Select Service Worker Training Methods, Richard Ries

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is an interdisciplinary master's level thesis that explores links among technical writing, training manuals, surveillance, and anti-union rhetoric used with service workers in select American chains and franchises. Brief histories are provided, including those of technical writing, the rise of unions in America, and how technical writing became inextricably linked with labor. A major shift occurred in the 20th century when workers began interacting less with products and more with the public. The research focuses on training manuals, techniques, and rehearsed dialogues of McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, and Publix, though similar organizations are referenced. Service worker language, …

Financial Forest, Karen Carlson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regular savings behavior is critical for low-income Americans to achieve financial mobility. New technology tools are being used to improve personal awareness and attention to financial goals. This thesis reviews mobile learning (mLearning) research and leading commercial personal finance smartphone apps, both of which inform the design of Financial Forest, a savings app. Participants in the 4-week Financial Forest savings study are found to have a statistically significant improved perception of the difficulty of building an emergency fund.

Antecedents And Consequences Of Customer Experience In Beverage Establishments, Milos Bujisic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that there are approximately 42,000 beverage establishments in the U.S. whose annual revenue surpasses $20 billion (First Research, 2014). To facilitate discussion of beverage establishments, it is essential to recognize beverage establishments as businesses whose majority of sales come from alcoholic drinks (Moss, 2010a). In this research, beverage establishments are divided into beverage-only bars, bar/entertainment combinations, and food and beverage combinations. Even though they are a well-established industry, beverage establishments have received little academic attention (Moss, 2010b). For example, previous studies have given little attention to the development of the model that examines the relationships between quality …

Customer Evaluation Of Managers' Responses To Online Complaints, Eric Olson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Managers have begun to respond to customers' online reviews of services on online review websites. However, it is not known how viewers evaluate company-initiated service recovery in the form of manager responses to online reviews. This research has three objectives: (1) to explore how managers are currently responding to electronic word of mouth; (2) to investigate whether a manager's response to electronic negative word of mouth (eNWOM) positively influences viewers' behavioral intentions; (3) to examine which elements in a manager's responses increases viewers' evaluations of trust and behavioral intentions towards the company. Three studies were conducted, one for each objective. …

The Role Of Freedom In Assessing The Relationship Between Tourism Competitiveness And Quality Of Life: The Case Of Central America, Marketa Kubickova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation study is to investigate the relationship among tourism competitiveness, quality of life, and freedom. The main premise is that the degree of freedom shapes the relationship between tourism development and quality of life. The study hypothesized that the greater the degree of freedom is, the greater impact tourism development will have on quality of life of residents of a destination. The theoretical framework of this study is based on combining Sen's capability approach with the tourism competitiveness theory. Tourism competitiveness aims at enhancing the quality of life, while Sen's capability approach provides the ingredients for …

An Examination Of Job Analysis: Developing Interdisciplinary Strategies In Human Resource Management Facilitative Of Mitigating Propensities Of Teacher Attrition, Julio Devere

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite repeated attempts by school administrators, policymakers and researchers to diagnose and correct rising occurrences of teacher turnover, there has been little change in the actual efforts to retain teachers in academy organizations. In response, this study was conducted to describe process constraints within the academy organization that are responsible for managing teacher turnover. To provide a description of current teacher retention efforts by school administrators, a survey instrument was administered to school teachers in the State of Florida. The population sample was dispersed throughout the entire state and closely reflected the demographics of Florida school teachers. The survey addressed …

The Reliability Of Chinese Economic Statistics, Lili Yu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China's rapid economic growth over the past three decades has drawn attention from all over the world. The sources and reliability of the official statistics behind the tremendous growth have been the subject of heated debate among economists. This paper contributes to this data reliability debate by analyzing on the GDP statistics of China and seeks to establish whether or not the official data are valid.

This study begins with a review of the prominent research on the topic. The majority of these studies, reviewed in chapter two, point to a series of inherent contradictions in the official figures, which …

Financial Reporting Manipulation And The Role Of Religious Ownership: Evidence From Nonprofit Hospitals, Ryan Seay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Empirical evidence (e.g. Eldenburg and Vines 2004; Leone and Van Horn 2005; Ballantine et al. 2007; Eldenburg et al. 2011) demonstrates that nonprofit hospital managers respond to competing institutional and regulatory pressures by engaging in various forms of financial reporting manipulation. While some recent research in accounting (e.g. Dyreng et al. 2012; McGuire et al. 2012) shows that religious social norms can deter this undesirable behavior, these studies focus on the private, for-profit sector and use a location-based measure of religiosity. This study extends this line of research by using a more direct measure of religious social norms, the ownership …

Small Business Crews As High Performance Work Teams: The Role Of Vertical And Horizontal Familiarity, Foster Brett Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the influence of vertical team familiarity (past work experience between leader and members) and horizontal team familiarity (past work experience between members) on fluid team financial job performance. Utilizing role theory (Foa & Foa, 1974), leader-member exchange (Graen & Scandura, 1984) and team-member exchange (Seers, 1989) theories, within Grant's (2007) relational job design model, a conceptual model is developed and then empirically tested. It is proposed that through vertical team familiarity and horizontal team familiarity resource exchange relationships develop which influence team financial job performance. The effect of vertical team familiarity on team financial job performance …

Mobile Computing Device Adoption In Organizations: An Information-Processing Based View, Xiang Guo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mobile computing devices have gained popularity in organizations. Various companies, government agencies, and academic institutions have seen a dramatic increase in employees' adoption of personal mobile devices. Current research has not provided clear explanations about the motivations behind employees' mobile device adoption behavior and the factors affecting these behaviors. This paper proposes using a new perspective, an information-processing based view, to better understand this new trend. The newly developed measurement instrument, named as Information-Processing Support Index (IPSI), captures an employee's perceptions about the capabilities of mobile devices to support his/her work-related information-processing needs. An exploratory model using IPSI and other …

Initial Online Consumer Trust (Ioct): The Influence Of Third-Party Service Provider Reputation, Website Utility, Electronic Word-Of-Mouth, And Previous Experience With Similar Websites, Surma Mukhopadhyay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The objectives of the study were 1) to conceptualize Initial Online Consumer Trust (IOCT) and 2) to examine the effects of website utility, electronic word-of-mouth, consumer past experiences with similar websites, and third-party service providers' reputation on the development of IOCT. Methods: To explore the research objectives, the study deployed a 2X3 experimental design that involved six experimental groups. Subjects were recruited from the undergraduate student pool at the University of Mississippi, School of Business. The vignettes used in the study was hypothetical book selling websites, one with the presence of third-party service providers and the other without any …

A Study Of Data Informatics: Data Analysis And Knowledge Discovery Via A Novel Data Mining Algorithm, Shilpa Balan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Frequent pattern mining (fpm) has become extremely popular among data mining researchers because it provides interesting and valuable patterns from large datasets. The decreasing cost of storage devices and the increasing availability of processing power make it possible for researchers to build and analyze gigantic datasets in various scientific and business domains. A filtering process is needed, however, to generate patterns that are relevant. This dissertation contributes to addressing this need. An experimental system named fpmies (frequent pattern mining information extraction system) was built to extract information from electronic documents automatically. Collocation analysis was used to analyze the relationship of …

An Evaluation Of Perceived Safety Of Free Software: The Brafs Model, Will Pepper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the perceived safety of free software and its relationship with the intention to use this technology in a business setting. The newly created construct of perceived safety is developed out of the theory of planned behavior. It is researched, scrutinized, and refined according to academic guidelines and two different environmental settings. The constructs that impact perceived safety and its relationship with intention to use consist of technology perceived risk, technology trusting beliefs, expected financial utility, and perceived adverse impact on professional reputation. Each construct consists of multiple operationalized elements. To explore this empirically, beneficial and risk measurements …

The Role Of Independence In The Effectiveness Of Continuous Auditing, Dereck D. Barr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine whether and how the frequency of internal audits (continuous vs. periodic), functional independence (separate vs. combined internal audit assurance and consulting functions), and the type of earnings management (accrual-based vs. real) affect internal auditors' perception of the likelihood managers will manipulate earnings. I find that earnings management is less likely when the internal audit function uses continuous auditing, regardless of the level of independence. However, the effect of independence is context-dependent such that internal auditors expect that real (accrual-based) earnings management is less likely when the internal audit function is independent (not independent), regardless of …

Top Management Team Attention To The Threats From Technological Disasters: Evidence From Polluters In The S&P 1500, Jaemin Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increased public attention to environmental disasters is reducing the likelihood firms can ascribe the consequential damages of stakeholders to "acts of Nature". This phenomenon indicates that the absence of top management team (TMT) attention to natural environmental issues leads a firm to control-reducing and likely-loss threats, but less is known about whether firms engage in environmental actions in response to technological disasters and why some firms actively undertake environmental action, while others do not. Drawing on the attention-based view, I propose that technological disasters that happen in a focal firm's affiliated industry cause a TMT to increase a firm's environmental …

Mr Hyde Or Dr. Jekyll? Characteristics Of The Information Systems Security Mindset, David Pumphrey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information security professionals have a unique challenge in today's connected world. They are charged with protecting digital assets from individuals, groups, and even foreign governments with little or no restrictions limiting their behavior. To be successful, security experts must have the mindset and skills of those who seek to harm their organization, but most are not alloto retaliate, in kind. Instead, they must use these skills only to predict and to prevent future attacks; thus using their technical prowess for good and not for evil. In a survey of 330 information security professionals, the data reveals six mindsets of security …

There Is No "I" In Team: An Investigation Of Team Dynamics In The Buyer-Seller Interaction, Katerina Hybnerova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The importance of sales team composition and the necessary team competencies is examined in this research. This research uses team intelligence, role expectancy, team cohesion, and improvisation to build an Input-Process-Output model for sales team composition. A strategic plan is devised for the sales team presentation process through three important phases, (1) team composition (2) presentation preparation, and (3) presentation execution. The team composition process, or the formation of the team, will illuminate the competencies necessary for the salespeople who will be responsible for the presentation to the buyer in the buyer-seller interaction (i.e. the initial sales pitch). Through the …

A Federated Architecture For Heuristics Packet Filtering In Cloud Networks, Ibrahim M. Waziri Jr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rapid expansion in networking has provided tremendous opportunities to access an unparalleled amount of information. Everyone connects to a network to gain access and to share this information. However when someone connects to a public network, his private network and information becomes vulnerable to hackers and all kinds of security threats. Today, all networks needs to be secured, and one of the best security policies is firewall implementation.

Firewalls can be hardware or cloud based. Hardware based firewalls offer the advantage of faster response time, whereas cloud based firewalls are more flexible. In reality the best form of firewall …

Website Interactivity As A Branding Tool For Hotel Websites, Albert Barred Davila

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation explored the relationships among Website interactivity, brand knowledge, consumer-based brand equity and behavioral intentions in the context of hotel Websites. Based on an in-depth literature review, a theory-driven model was proposed and ten hypotheses were developed. The dissertation employed an empirical study based on a survey design, and collected data via a marketing company. Respondents who booked a hotel room online using hotel branded Websites in the last 12 months were approached to complete the online questionnaire. Four hundred ninety six (496) respondents completed the online questionnaire by answering to questions related to their last hotel booking experience. …

The Influence Of Location Of Firm Ownership On Consumers, C. Clifton Eason

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of consumers are making consumption decisions based on perceptions of a firm's social performance. In other words, many consumers take into account a firm's impact on society and the environment when deciding where they will spend their money. Thus, it is important for firms to understand what these consumers perceive to be important indicators of a firm's social performance. A potential element of social performance that has yet to be studied is local ownership as well as its influence on consumers' store perceptions and consumption decisions. As large, national chains increasingly threaten the existence of smaller, locally-owned …