Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Fedex Ground Strategic Audit, Samantha Gates

Honors Theses

FedEx Ground is an operating segment of the parcel carrier giant FedEx Inc. The company, known for shipping products via delivery truck, has remained one of the largest parcel carriers in the country, despite drastic changes in its environment. This report seeks to understand the changing operating environment of FedEx Ground, its competitive advantages, and the future challenges it may face. The analysis uses PESTEL and Porter's Five Forces analyses to evaluate the changing external environment and industry FedEx Ground operates in. Additionally, challenges and recommendations are offered to navigate the future of this company.

An Overview Of Risk Management Practices In Hospitality Organizations In Germany, Farzaneh Soleimani Zoghi, Hannes Antonschmidt

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

This paper aims to identify the key risks which are considered necessary by hospitality organizations in Germany. It also seeks to evaluate the actual process of risk management practiced by hoteliers and to assess managers’ opinions on the importance of a risk management approach in hospitality organizations. Primary data has been collected by semi-structured qualitative interviews with top managers and professionals in hospitality organizations in Germany. The findings show that the implementation of risk management practices in hospitality organizations in Germany is low and that significant differences exist between the theoretical risk management models and their practical execution in hotel …

Vertical Partnerships Between Oem And First Tier: Lessons From Automotive Component Companies In Greater Jakarta-Indonesia, Donny Oktavian Syah, Rambat Lupiyoadi, Embun Suryani

The South East Asian Journal of Management

Research Aims: This research aimed to investigate vertical partnerships between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and first-tier automotive component firms based on the relationships between technology transfer, technical exchange, government role and supplier performance in the Greater Jakarta area.

Design/Methodology/Approach: A total of 65 respondent firms participated, comprising 6 OEMs and 59 first-tier firms. The research included site visits and interviews with companies based on questionnaires completed by representative individuals from middle management upward with responsibility for assessing product quality (purposive sampling). The questionnaire results were measured using Partial Least Squares Path Modelling (PLS-PM).

Research Findings: The results highlighted significant relationships …

Analysis Of The Relationship Between Practices And Performance Of Green Supply Chain Management In Indonesian Micro, Small, And Medium Enterprises (Msmes), Dinda Halimah Siregar, Fajar Ayu Pinagara

The South East Asian Journal of Management

Research Aims: This study discusses the practice of green supply chain management (GSCM) on environmental performance and operational costs in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia's food and beverage industry. Especially to examine the existence of ecocentricity and supply chain traceability that moderates GSCM practices with environmental performance and operational costs.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The judgement sampling method was used in this study, and 85 respondents contributed. Research questionnaires were distributed online, and data were analysed using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM).

Research Findings: The results of this study indicate that GSCM practices have a significant relationship to environmental …

Portwest’S Future Strategy: Fashionising Workwear – Threading The Needle, Fiachra Coll, Damian O'Reilly

Case Studies

Portwest- should they further pursue the leisurewear / workwear market or should they focus on expanding the current range?

Portwest is a global manufacturer and innovator of workwear, safetywear and Personal protective equipment (PPE) and one of the fastest growing workwear companies in the world. Recently, the company launched an “Inspired Workwear” collection targeting the leisurewear/workwear market. It is a departure from their traditional markets where their acquisition strategy has seen Portwest rapidly gain market share. Management are concerned that this new departure may take resources from the core business of Workwear and dilute key resources.

Florensis: More Catholic Than The Pope?, Gerard Van Der Star, Arjen Van Klink, Florensis

Case Studies

The beauty of a family business is that it always keeps an eye on the continuity of the business. For a family business nothing is more important than long-term continuity and harmony. A good balance between family and business interests is essential24. In any case, the focus is on the long term25. How can Florensis ensure that the fifth and sixth generations and the numerous employees can still enjoy the benefits of this beautiful company. The Calvinist and Christian roots of Florensis ensured from the outset that the human factor was central and key. Without this people orientation quality production …

University/Industry Collaboration: Using A Classroom Business Case To Enhance Student Problem-Solving/Learning Experience, Gregory Benson, Ngan N. Chau

Mountain Plains Business Conference

This study illustrates how an academic program utilizes industry partnerships as a resource to maintain the relevancy of its curriculum. In particular, a university/industry collaboration experience is examined to showcase how a real business problem at an industry partner has resulted in a business case used in the classroom to enhance students’ problem solving.

Key Words: Supply Chain Management (SCM), University/Industry Collaboration (UIC), Business Case Study

Study Of Stochastic Market Clearing Problems In Power Systems With High Renewable Integration, Saumya Sakitha Sashrika Ariyarathne

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

Integrating large-scale renewable energy resources into the power grid poses several operational and economic problems due to their inherently stochastic nature. The lack of predictability of renewable outputs deteriorates the power grid’s reliability. The power system operators have recognized this need to account for uncertainty in making operational decisions and forming electricity pricing. In this regard, this dissertation studies three aspects that aid large-scale renewable integration into power systems. 1. We develop a nonparametric change point-based statistical model to generate scenarios that accurately capture the renewable generation stochastic processes; 2. We design new pricing mechanisms derived from alternative stochastic programming …

A Multiple Case Study On Small And Mid-Size Enterprise Managers’ Lived Experiences On The Impact Of Job Losses On Outsourcing Practices, Nicholas M. Watson

The Qualitative Report

There is a greater need to understand how economic insecurities contribute to outsourcing practices. Previous research documented that small and medium-sized enterprises gained limited advantages from outsourcing. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study design was to explore the contribution of consumer job losses on outsourcing practices. A semi-structured open-ended interview was used to collect data from the 13 participants from the furniture, bedding, and wooden industries in Jamaica. From the analysis of the data collected, two themes emerge: (1) affordability and (2) market trends. The findings obtained from this research suggest that consumer job losses contributed to outsourcing …

Lean Accounting: A Connection To Strategic Partnership & Collaboration Between Management Accountants And Operations Managers, Colleen Mpofu

Dissertations

Technological advances, such as automation and artificial intelligence, have transformed the accounting profession. There is a consensus in the academic and practitioner literature that management accountants must move from their traditional role into one that serves as a strategic partner. However, literature that examines how management accountants have moved from this traditional role to one that is more strategic is limited. This study combines concepts from three different literature streams to explore how utilizing lean accounting practices relate to management accountant’s participation in strategic decision making, partnership with operations managers, and overall operational performance in manufacturing firms utilizing a lean …

Food Price Volatility And Household Welfare: A Case Study Of Major Cities Of Pakistan, Nigar Zehra, Ambreen Fatima

Business Review

The purpose of this paper is to find the impact of food price volatility on the welfare of urban households of Pakistan. Food price volatility in monthly prices of major food commodities for main cities of Pakistan is calculated through standard deviation method. Moreover, the study adopts the methodology provided by Alkire and Foster 2007, and Alkire and Santos 2010 to develop Household Deprived Welfare Index (DWI) for major cities of Pakistan. Following Deaton 1985, the study uses pseudo panel approach. Fixed Effect technique is applied to estimate the impact of volatility on household welfare. The results generated from pseudo …

Essays On Supply Chain Economic Networks For Disaster Management Inspired By The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mojtaba Salarpour

Doctoral Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, negatively impacted virtually all economic and social activities across the globe. As of March 7, 2022, more than 6 million deaths have been associated with COVID-19 disease. This health disaster, unlike many other disasters, is not limited to time or location. It has resulted in intense global competition for many essential products, from Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to ventilators and vaccines and food products. In this dissertation, I construct, analyze, and quantitatively solve a spectrum of supply chain economic network models inspired by realities in …

Building A Supply Chain For Emergency: A Case Study Of Kingfa's Mask Supply Chain, Nanjing Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In case of emergency such as pandemic or earthquake, there are usually surge demands for some necessary products, which are usually far more than available production capacities thus it is necessary to quickly build more production capacities. However, building production capacities is not just building production lines but to constructing whole supply chains, from raw materials and equipment sourcing, manufacturing flow lines to demand management.

To quickly construct a supply chain for fulfilling such emergency demands is very challenging both theoretically and practically. This thesis aims to develop a model of supply chain construction for emergency demand and identify the …

The Rise Of American Food In China, Shiyan Wang

Master's Projects and Capstones

Over the years, American food has become more and more popular in China. Today, the Chinese are more open to trying new cuisines. To fully understand the forces that have catalyzed the growing presence of American foods in China, my research project demonstrates the complex web of factors that shape how American food businesses’ presence in China has changed over the last decade. Examining a diversity of sources, including existing trend data, my analysis focuses on the domestic and global factors that have facilitated the growing presence of American food restaurants in China. Using this research as a jumping off …

An Investigation Into Dysfunctionality Within Intermodal Transportation With A Minor Focus On Refrigerated Containers, Austin Burgess

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper will contain a discourse regarding intermodal transportation, with a focus on refrigerated containers. It will also give insight into the current issues facing the intermodal market with a selection of suggestions on how to address them. The discourse will take factors such as cost, service, reliability, capacity, the characteristics of the different modes of transportation, and several other factors into consideration. This shall be accomplished through a qualitative interview series conducted with involved parties with different perspectives. Additionally, quantitative data gathered from industry and governmental resources will assist in the analysis. The output of this paper will be …

Understanding Supply Chain Management: A Necessary Skill For Salespeople?, Lindsey Jetton

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to explore phenomena within the experience of consumer packaged goods (CPG) account representatives in customer-facing roles by investigating the impact of supply chain training, experience, and skills on sales role effectiveness in CPG companies. Findings suggest that skills needed for sales include technical competency, excellent communication skills, and the knowledge to keep commitments. Supply chain understanding within their industry impacts these identified skills by removing confusion, improving identification with their company, realistically aligning customer expectations, and building confidence.

Insomnovation – Natural Sleep Solutions Business Plan, Nikolas Limperis

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Currently, 70 million Americans suffer from some sort of sleep issues from trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, and daytime drowsiness. However, the sleep solutions on the market today are either highly artificial or only address the symptoms of sleep issues rather than the underlying cause. This is what Insomnovation seeks to address. By providing supplementation to seven key vitamins and minerals, Insomnovation hopes to bring a natural solution to put the issue of sleep disorders to rest.

Arclothmasks: A Pandemic Startup Journey, Adam Jackson

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

Covid-19 changed the way the world operated when it became a pandemic in 2020. The need for personal protection equipment was unexpected and suppliers were not prepared for the demand. The government mandate of masks furthered the need of PPE across the nation. To help fill this shortage, many companies began to retool their manufacturing processes from clothing to masks. This thesis will dive into one PPE company and its journey from the start of the pandemic. The business plan for the company will follow it along with graphs and charts that help tell the tale of the startup.

Covid‑19 Vaccine Distribution: Exploring Strategic Alternatives For The Greater Good, Arben Asllani, Silvana Trimi

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty and Staff Publications

The dire state of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis symbolized the urgency for efficient distribution and administration of vaccines to combat the virus as the most urgent public health service. This paper presents a prototype multi-criteria decision support model based on goal programming that can effectively support vaccination plans for the greater good of society. The optimization goals of the model include minimizing the number of fatalities and risk of spreading the disease, while complying with government health agency’s priority guidelines for vaccination. This study applied the model to a real-world dataset to demonstrate how it can be effectively applied as …

An Empirical Study To Understand The Effectiveness And Scope Of Blockchain Technology In Indian Public Sector, Radhakrishnan Airy, Hritika Gajarlawar, Nilay Bajaria, Ganesh Joshi

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

The Blockchain is a distributed database that is maintained as Blocks and contains all transactions or digital occurrences. These are the records of transactions that take place between parties.Blockchain blocks are kept as blocks and shared among participants. Each Block is examined, validated, and saved by the parties who are a part of the system/network, each brick is unique and contains the details of a single transaction as well as the transaction's hash key. The study offers insights to researchers about the opportunity threat and future use of blockchain in the public sector.

Pricing Under Uncertainty: Forward And Option Pricing In Sports Markets, Preethika Sainam, Sridhar Balasubramanian, Shantanu Bhattacharya, Lin L. Ong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Tickets to popular elimination style tournaments (e.g., NFL Super Bowl) are expensive and scarce. Sports organizations sell these tickets well in advance of the final game. Fans hesitate to buy them because they are unsure about whether their favorite team will play in it. We present two alternatives to the current practice: consumer forwards and options. A fan pays a reserve price to secure her team-specific forward ticket. If that team makes it to the final game, the fan must (in the option case, has the choice to) pay an exercise price to purchase the ticket. If the team does …

Perceptions Of Employability Skills Of Undergraduate Business Students In A Developing Country: An Exploratory Study, Wise Mainga, Reuben M. Daniel, Luis Alamil

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of different employability skills for business graduates seeking initial employment.

Method: Semi-structured survey questionnaires were administered to human resources representatives from industry, business lecturers, and graduating business students to determine gaps in perceptions between the three stakeholder groups.

Results: There was some alignment and moderate discrepancies in perceptions of the relative importance of different employability skills between the three stakeholder groups. There were statistically significant differences in perceived importance of communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills between graduating students and employers. There is evidence that employers were satisfied with …

Headquarters Report: A Look Back, A Step Forward, Karen Burgess Cae

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

In her Headquarters Report, MDA Executive Director Karen Burgess reflects on the dental landscape entering the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, acknowledging the "new normal" with increased demand for services, staff shortages, and supply chain challenges. Despite uncertainties, the Michigan Dental Association (MDA) maintained membership numbers better than expected, with a slight decrease in market share. The report emphasizes the importance of member value, highlighted by a favorable Net Promoter Score (NPS) and positive feedback on MDA benefits. It also discusses efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion, along with successful advocacy initiatives influencing oral health in Michigan.

Effect Of Covid 19 Pandemic On Pharmaceutical Industry In Terms Of Inventory And Logistics Management, Shubhabrata Basu, Rimu Chaudhuri

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11^th March 2020, after the outbreak that was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic affected world economy including the pharmaceutical sector. The health crisis unleashed in the world because of this pandemic and the attempts of various countries and organizations in the world to contain it have also fuelled the greatest economic crisis in modern history. This significant fall in world trade in goods and services have been triggered by the interruption and break down of local and global supply chains, generating high levels …

Qualitative Findings From The Practice Of Outsourcing By The Aviation Technical Services Industry In Northern Europe: Comparison With Literature, Jukka Holkeri

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The outsourcing of maintenance and other technical services is a trend in both military and civil aviation. This article uses input from real outsourcing cases in Northern Europe to verify previous literature findings and to introduce new viewpoints to fill an identified research gap.

Interviews of deeply involved individuals from six cases were selected and analyzed using the Delphi method. The findings were synthesized using a framework that articulates contexts, observed outcomes, and generative mechanisms.

Many of the key literature findings were verified by this case analysis, but there were also some contradictions and new observations that had not been …

The Product Test Scheduling Problem, Megan Wydick Martin, Cliff Ragsdale, John Fico, Carlos G. Cajica-Sierra, Richard M. Fetcenko

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

This research focused on product test scheduling in the presence of in-process and at-completion inspection constraints. Such testing arises in the context of the manufacture of products that must perform reliably in extreme environmental conditions. Often, these products must receive a certification from prescribed regulatory agencies at the successful completion of a predetermined series of tests. Operational efficiency is enhanced by determining the optimal order and start times of tests so as to minimize the makespan while ensuring that technicians are available when needed to complete in-process and at-completion inspections. We refer to this as the product test scheduling problem. …

Invited Perspective - Nutritional Needs And Implications For Children In Subsistence Marketplaces, Nagendra Rangavajla

Subsistence Marketplaces

Today, while the number of stunted children is decreasing in all geographies, the progress is not consistent. Moreover, there is an increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescent. Globally, about half of all children under five do not receive essential nutrients, often unnoticed until too late. On the other end of the spectrum, the incidence of overweight and obesity in 5-19 year old has increased from 4% in 1975 to 18% in 2016 ¹. These trends reflect a ‘triple burden of malnutrition’, a burden that impacts the survival, growth, and development of children, and in turn, …

Zachary Shane's Portfolio, Zachary Shane

Honors College Portfolios

Description:

Being a part of the business program here at Duquesne University is more than just an accomplishment; it is the success I have received from high school to where I am today. Going into the junior year of my undergraduate program is where I intend to put all of these successes into place. I can finally dive into what I came to this school for, which was my ultimate major. As a supply chain and information technology double major, I can look into how our country is brought together and what pieces of technology are used to make that …

Invited Perspective - Engaging Aspirations To Nurture Communities, Kentaro Toyama

Subsistence Marketplaces

For subsistence communities, the question is whether aspirations can be applied to motivate behavior that is, on the one hand consistent with people’s aspirations, but which might otherwise be difficult to elicit. Could poorer households be encouraged to save, to spend more on their children’s education, or to act against unhealthy social norms? A couple of examples suggest this is not only possible, but highly successful in contexts where other appeals fail.

Does Emotional Intelligence Impact Team Performance In Construction Projects? Exploring The Mediating Role Of Trust And Moderating Role Of Work Status, Ariba Abid, Aamer Hanif, Amna Khan

Business Review

Emotional intelligence (EI) is an essential part of the many types of intelligences an individual possesses. The outcome of interactions in personal life as well as within the organization depend upon how high or low the Emotional Quotient (EQ) is. Organizations, nowadays, specifically design tests for hiring people with higher EQ since the emotional intelligence of a team member leaves an impact on its performance. The major goal of this research is to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and team performance, as well as the impact of employee work status on these two. The research also examines the mediating …