Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

The Conceptualization Of Justice Perceptions In Appraising Performance Of Knowledge Work, Christina (Minuth) Norton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizational justice theory suggests employees are more likely to accept appraisal outcomes if they believe the process to be fair. As an increasing percentage of the workforce is made up of knowledge workers with job characteristics that are less structured and more autonomous, the shift in appraisal research from measurement accuracy to perceptions on fairness is fitting. This research investigates the relationships between justice perceptions and performance appraisal satisfaction by knowledge workers. The study extends previous research with the creation of composite measures to examine whether perceptions of fairness vary according to the characteristics of work performed.

The research was …

Essential Leadership Skills For Frontline Managers In A Multicultural Organization, Janelle Ward

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory research examined the leadership skills essential for frontline managers to be effective in a multicultural organization. The purpose was to inform company management of vital skills to include in a new leadership development program (LDP) initiative. The literature review revealed that a list of commonly accepted leadership skills does not exist. This research gap is even greater for multicultural environments. In addition to developing a list of skills, I assessed the impact of situational factors, including the scenario and demographics of the people involved, on perceived critical leadership skills.

I conducted a survey within the company of interest …

The Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uass) Industry And The Business Impacts Of The Evolution Of The Federal Regulatory Environment, Darren W. Spencer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the explosion of popularity of UASs, and the recognition that such systems must find a way to safely operate alongside manned aviation, a literature review by this author as well as interviews with three commercial aerial photography companies in Tampa Bay, Florida, indicate that regulatory restrictions are still the greatest obstacle to law abiding commercial UAS operators. It can take six to eight months with a backlog of 12,000 waiver applications to get either a Part 333 or Part 107 exemption, which grants FAA permission for a commercial operator to fly a UAS inside controlled airspace (Gardner, 2018). A …

Enhancing The Design Of A Cybersecurity Risk Management Solution For Communities Of Trust, James E. Fulford Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research into cybersecurity risks and various methods of evaluating those threats has become an increasingly important area of academic and practitioner investigations. Of particular interest in this field is enhancing the designs and informing capabilities of cybersecurity risk management solutions for users who desire to understand how organizations are impacted when such risks are exploited. Many of the cybersecurity risk management solutions are extremely technical and require their users to have a commensurate level of technical acumen. In the situation evaluated during this research project, the founders of the company being researched had created a highly technical risk management solution …

Understanding Long-Standing Belief Systems In Business: A Qualitative Study Of The Equine Industry, Robyn Lord

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Change management is a highly researched topic. With industry changing at record speed, it is inevitable that corporations will engage in a change management endeavor. As humans innately resist change at first exposure, corporations strive to acquire knowledge in adoption. It may not be enough to understand status quo proponents, but rather their underlying long-standing belief systems which may be affecting how they view change. What makes an employee resist corporate change? Most studies conclude that humans will resist innately. This research dives into the unique environment of the equine industry to uncover how long-standing belief systems contribute to adoption …

Forces Affecting The Success Of Business Working In Florida’S Economic Zones, Hugh Bettendorf

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research provides information about Economic Development Zones (EDZ) to help the reader understand these programs. For a business owner they are able to make informed decisions about the merits of these programs and decide whether it makes sense for them to relocate their businesses to Florida’s Economic Development Zones. What most readers do not know is that these programs and the operating condition of an Economic Development Zone can offer benefits to a business owner, allowing them to reduce their operating expenses and the cost of doing business.

Over the past several years, the researcher discussed foreign trade opportunities …

How To Build A Climate Of Quality In A Small To Medium Enterprise: An Action Research Project, Desmond M. Bishop Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quality Management (QM) in one of its many forms has become an integral part of contemporary business. Most research in this field was conducted within the context of large business. This study is one of the first to examine QM for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). This article used the action research methodology to explore how a SME located in the southeastern United States implemented a climate of quality. QM implementation in this company was executed in two separate interventions. In the first intervention, the factors of top management commitment, collaboration, data-centered decision making and process focus were implemented using …

Asian Immigrants In Leadership Roles In The United States: Exploration For Leader Development, Ramil L. Cabela

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cultural identity and resource availability aspects in traditional leadership development literature remain understudied, especially among minority populations like Asian immigrants.

This study explores the leadership journeys of 24 United States immigrants from China, India and the Philippines using a phenomenological approach, primarily with semi-structured interviews. Experiences of 18 additional immigrant leaders published in popular media were also analyzed.

Data from the study reveals that Asian migrants’ roads to leadership in U.S. organizations are heterogeneous and characterized by either linear or nonlinear, overlapping phases of leader development where migrant leaders overcome assimilation challenges and leverage their unique, individual human capital to …

Banking On Blockchain: A Grounded Theory Study Of The Innovation Evaluation Process, Priya D. Dozier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain technology emerged as the underlying database structure for Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, in 2008. Interest in blockchain by the Financial Services industry grew because of its purported transparency, security, and trust elements which resulted in over $240 million in venture capital funds raised by blockchain firms mostly from banks in the first half of 2017.

The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying innovation evaluation process that Financial Services organizations employed as they evaluated blockchain technology. In this research study, blockchain was considered a technology innovation, which drove the research question: “How do financial services organizations evaluate blockchain …

Does A Student-Athletes' Socioeconomic Background Matter?, Carl E. Gilmore Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on college football players from low socioeconomic backgrounds (i.e., attended a Title I High School) and examines whether they are more likely to experience athletic success and influence the performance of the college football programs they attend relative to other student-athletes. The results show that, over the period 2010-2016, Title I players are more likely to be drafted or play in the NFL than other student-athletes. In addition, teams with more Title I players on their roster appear to reap some benefits. On one hand, Title I heavy rosters are associated with better conference records and are …

Employee Wellness Innovations In Hospitality Workplaces: Learning From High-Tech Corporations, Tingting Zhang

Journal of Global Business Insights

Employee wellness programs are known to bring many benefits to companies. However, due to the unique hospitality job conditions and requirements, employee wellness programs usually suffer from low participation and engagement. This paper reviews various innovations of employee wellness programs in high-tech corporations as well as some hospitality enterprises that are well known for great places to work for. Based on the review findings, the paper suggests effective and plausible solutions to generate high participation and engagement with employee wellness programs in the hospitality workplaces. Limitations and future research directions are discussed in the end of the paper.

Labor Planning Outcomes: Systemic Management Models, Human Interactions, And Knowledge Sharing, Richard J. Tarpey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project takes a systemic approach to hospital labor planning and allocation rather than sub-optimizing the individual components of workload demand forecasting, scheduling, and staffing separately. The research considers all three components within their interdependent, dynamic, cyclical systemic nature to develop a better labor planning and allocation cycle (LPAC) management model across the various subsystems of the hospital. We used an Action Design Research (ADR) method to the guided emergence of innovative artifacts – Systemic LPAC Management Model and LPAC Performance Metrics – that we evaluate and improve through interventions in situ with practitioners. The Systemic LPAC Management Model leveraged …

Intangible Capital: Culture Of Innovation And Its Impact On The Cash Flow Multiple, James Russell Gregory

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The definition for a culture of innovation (COI) is the perception of a company that prioritizes the advancement of new ideas that create value across all operations. On the face of it that seems a precious attribute for any company to nurture and exploit, but measuring and valuing a culture of innovation has proven elusive for corporations. There is a tendency to break down innovation into R&D, patents granted, and new product development and while these are all significant components of innovation a cultural definition is more encompassing of the entirety of a company and the financial results should be …

Analytics For Novel Consumer Insights (A Three Essay Dissertation), Utkarsh Shrivastava

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Both literature and practice have investigated how the vast amount of ever increasing customer information can inform marketing strategy and decision making. However, the customer data is often susceptible to modeling bias and misleading findings due to various factors including sample selection and unobservable variables. The available analytics toolkit has continued to develop but in the age of nearly perfect information, the customer decision making has also evolved. The dissertation addresses some of the challenges in deriving valid and useful consumer insights from customer data in the digital age. The first study addresses the limitations of traditional customer purchase measures …

Multi-Step Tokenization Of Automated Clearing House Payment Transactions, Privin Alexander

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since its beginnings in 1974, the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network has grown into one of the largest, safest, and most efficient payment systems in the world. An ACH transaction is an electronic funds transfer between bank accounts using a batch processing system.

Currently, the ACH Network moves almost $43 trillion and 25 billion electronic financial transactions each year. With the increasing movement toward an electronic, interconnected and mobile infrastructure, it is critical that electronic payments work safely and efficiently for all users. ACH transactions carry sensitive data, such as a consumer's name, account number, tax identification number, account holder …

Physician Practice Survival: The Role Of Analytics In Shaping The Future, Janene Jones Culumber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation joins an ongoing discussion in the business management and information technology literature surrounding the measurement of an organization’s business analytic capability, the benefits derived from maturing the capability and the improvements being made toward maturity. The dissertation specifically focuses on the healthcare industry in the United States and more specifically independent physician practices specializing in orthopaedics. After an extensive literature review along with expertise from industry leaders and experienced academic faculty, a survey instrument was developed to measure organizational capabilities, technology capabilities and people capabilities which together measured an organizations overall business analytic capability maturity. The survey instrument …

Defining Data Science And Data Scientist, Dana M. Dedge Parks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The world’s data sets are growing exponentially every day due to the large number of devices generating data residue across the multitude of global data centers. What to do with the massive data stores, how to manage them and defining who are performing these tasks has not been adequately defined and agreed upon by academics and practitioners. Data science is a cross disciplinary, amalgam of skills, techniques and tools which allow business organizations to identify trends and build assumptions which lead to key decisions. It is in an evolutionary state as new technologies with capabilities are still being developed and …

The Great Recession Of 2007 And The Housing Market Crash: Why Did So Many Builders Fail?, Mohamad Ali Hasbini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The “Great Recession” of 2007 created havoc in the homebuilding industry, more than any other previous economic down cycle. Countless seasoned local homebuilders across the country did not survive. The impact of their failure on the economy, community, employment, lenders, suppliers, and subcontractors was devastating. While previous studies have sought to identify the symptoms and causes of business failure, very little research has been done on home builder business failure due to acts, omissions, characteristics, or other events which are non-financial. Specifically, those that are attributable to the failed entities' top management and leadership during the housing crisis and the …

Facilities Management: How Public Leadership Is Responding To Crisis, Rebecca Jane Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research presents the results of a qualitative and quantitative investigation to understand the challenges of public sector facilities management and maintenance to include the negative impact of deferred maintenance, it’s history, the current industry practices and the potential to reverse the negative impact of the current trend.

History has been known to speak loudly, and with accuracy relative to the expansion of public facilities and the challenge to maintain them. The challenge to keep pace with the growing population and the ever-changing requirements for contemporary designs are felt in every sector of our public facilities. Regardless, we, the public …

Kinetic Problem Solving, Charles Arant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Government leaders stand to benefit from improved program management capabilities within their organizations. Often, they are faced with crisis situations that require a rapid-fire, precise, effective problem solving process. Some of these programs are more severe or complex than others. With time and certainty of the solution as constraints, efficient program management supporting the Defense Acquisition Life Cycle remains an enigma for organizations at best and a hazard at worst.

Program management dealing with crisis problem solving, which is characterized by critical events and high cost, is a real-time process where requirements are identified and resolved to achieve a desired …

A Study On The Efficacy Of The Medicare Bundled Payments For Care Improvement Initiative At A Large Community Hospital In The Southeast United States, Elizabeth E. Kerns

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, Medicare launched the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) Initiative which linked payments for multiple services for a complete episode of patient care. With this innovative reimbursement model, hospitals accepted fixed target payments for certain types of clinical diagnoses that were intended to support better care coordination and better outcomes for patients at lower cost to Medicare. This was one of many programs aimed at addressing the serious challenges facing United States healthcare, including costs that are skyrocketing to unsustainable levels and lack of coordination of care across venues.

Preliminary Medicare results showed that bundled payments might lead …

Toward A Systemic Model For Governance And Strategic Management: Evaluating Stakeholder Theory Versus Shareholder Theory Approaches, James A. Stikeleather

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research’s intent is improvement in governance and strategic management initially by comparing Shareholder Theory and Stakeholder Theory and making results useful for both Practitioner and Academic audiences. A conceptual model for how a society establishes and evolves the roles it legitimizes for a business to support reasoning about those roles and the process originating the expectations, responsibilities, obligations, contributions and freedom to act in the roles is proposed. Understanding this process would enable better governance and strategic management of a firm while avoiding unintended consequences when fulfilling the role and consequences for failing the role. The model becomes a …

A Longitudinal Study Of The Effects Of Cognitive Awareness Training On Transaction Processing Accuracy: An Introduction To The Ace Theoretical Construct, John Townsend

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact of Cognitive Awareness training on transaction processing accuracy rates within the US Financial Services Industry. Grounded in the theories of Inattentional Blindness and Error Management Culture, this paper supports and extends both theories through the development of a new theoretical construct. The ACE Construct is a novel approach that combines cognitive science, organizational development, and operational efficiency practices into a single approach designed to improve transaction processing accuracy. The study involved the design and implementation of a novel training program, with performance data observations sampled over seven months, to evaluate the impact of Cognitive Awareness …

Enhancing The Internet Of Things Architecture With Flow Semantics, Allen Ronald Deserranno

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Internet of Things (‘IoT’) systems are complex, asynchronous solutions often comprised of various software and hardware components developed in isolation of each other. These components function with different degrees of reliability and performance over an inherently unreliable network, the Internet. Many IoT systems are developed within silos that do not provide the ability to communicate or be interoperable with other systems and platforms. Literature exists on how these systems should be designed, how they should interoperate, and how they could be improved, but practice does not always consult literature.

The work brings together a proposed reference architecture for the IoT …

What Factors During The Genesis Of A Startup Are Causal To Survival?, Gilbert T. Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research presents the results of a qualitative and quantitative investigation into what factors are present at time zero that increase the probability that a startup will achieve long term sustainability.

Survival rates for startups in the United States (U.S.) are disappointingly low and economically inefficient. The data shows that the U.S. clearly lags its peer countries in the survival rates of startups. The U.S ranked an unacceptable 11th of 14 among its peer countries in first-year survival rates in recent years. Startup failure does not only impact the entrepreneur; it also impacts creditors, vendors, community stakeholders, and employees. While …

Crashapp™ –Concurrent Multiple Stakeholder Evaluation Of A Dsr Artefact, Timothy M. Papp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The successful design, implementation, deployment, and use of mobile software applications is rare. While many mobile apps are developed, few succeed. This design science research project builds and evaluates CrashApp™, a mobile application that connects lawyers and clients before, during, and after car accidents. The effective, widespread use of this app depends on satisfying the needs of three groups of stakeholders – the end-users (clients), the owners (lawyers), and the software developers. The research objective is to investigate the key differences among the three stakeholder groups on evaluation criteria for mobile app success. Evaluation strategies and methods are selected to …

Leaders Who Learn: The Intersection Of Behavioral Science, Adult Learning And Leadership, Natalya I. Sabga

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines if a relationship exists among three rich research streams, specifically the behavioral science of motivation, adult learning and leadership. What motivates adult professionals to continue learning and how is that connected to their style and efficacy as leaders? An extension of literature to connect Andragogy, Self-determination and Transformational Leadership Theory is explored. Responses to questions adapted from the Carré Model of Adult Orientation and Implication on Learning and Training Activities (Carré, 1997) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass, 2000) are compared among a sample of adult professionals in leadership positions. Results indicate that learning motivation …

An Examination Of Innovation Idea Selection Factors In Large Organizations, Troy A. Montgomery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A review of the innovation literature reveals theoretical models and success factors that pertain to the front end of innovation. However these models and factors fail to offer insight into factors large organizations consider when specifically performing the activity of idea selection. To bridge this gap, a grounded theory method was used to extract knowledge on innovation idea selection from 28 senior executives and innovation directors from 10 different, large organizations (defined as annual revenues greater than $1 billion). Analysis of the interview data resulted in the identification of 5 systemic and 4 implementation factors that large organizations consider when …

Evaluating The Relative Importance Of Influencing Factors On Cruise Vacations: A Conjoint Analysis, Frida Bahja

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on exploring the relative importance of six influential factors in cruise customers’ decision-making process such as: cruise vacation price, cruise duration, distance from the cruise port, itineraries, environmental friendliness of cruise line and cruise online reviews. The decision on which influencing factors to select was made based on the review of literature.

The complexity of cruise customers’ decision-making process for these six attributes with several levels was examined with Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC) Analysis. CBC was selected due to its realistic approach to purchase decisions, in the form of trade-offs. The online survey collected data anonymously. The survey …

How Online Reviews Influence Consumer Restaurant Selection, Nefike Gunden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since social media has been growing rapidly, the restaurant industry has been exploring this area extensively. Given that social media provides restaurant consumers with an opportunity to share their dining experiences, several studies have examined the impact of social media on consumer restaurant selection (Tran, 2015). As a part of the social media umbrella, online reviews are significant factors that influence consumer restaurant selection (Park & Nicolau, 2015; Yang, Hlee, Lee, Koo, 2017). However, there is a lack of understanding with regard to which attributes of restaurant online reviews are the most influential when it comes to customer decision making. …