Business Analytics Commons^™

Closing The Gender Gap In Entrepreneurship Education, Carolyn J. Rodeffer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Entrepreneurship education in higher education has been cited as a key strategy in filling the entrepreneurship talent pool, preparing students with the skills and confidence needed to start new ventures (Westhead & Solesvik, 2016). However, outcomes of entrepreneurship education for female students are less positive than for their male counterparts (Shinnar et al., 2012; Westhead & Solesvik, 2016; Wilson et al., 2007). Working within the frameworks of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory (1977), Azjen’s theory of planned behavior (1991), and Steele and Aronson’s stereotype threat theory (1995), this quantitative study utilized an experimental research design to assess the impact of role model …

Audit Firms’ Response To Audit Failures: Evidence From Partner Resource Reallocation, Elizabeth Cowle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I investigate whether audit firms reallocate partner resources following restatement announcements and, consequently, whether a supply-side response is beneficial in mitigating the previously documented implications of realized audit failures. I find a positive association between prior period restatement announcements and the year-over-year percentage change in the number of engagement partners allocated to a local audit office. Further analysis suggests that a supply-side response is beneficial in mitigating the persistence of low-quality audits and lost market share. However, I also find some evidence suggesting that the reallocation of partner resources can be detrimental to audit quality at offices from which partners …

The First Sign: Detecting Future Financial Fraud From The Ipo Prospectus, Lisa Spadaccini Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine whether it is possible to predict future financial statement fraud using disclosure content prior to the fraud. Specifically, I employ a machine learning algorithm to construct a unique measure based on the lexical cues embedded within a firm’s first public disclosure, the Management’s Discussion and Analysis section of the S-1 filing, during the Initial Public Offering process. I use this measure to predict whether a firm that is not already committing fraud will commit fraud within five years of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) that results in an Accounting or Enforcement Release (AAER). I find …

Essays On Managerial Attributes And Corporate Finance, Juntai Lu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation, I explore how managerial attributes affect corporate policies.

In my first essay, I examine the effects of public firm CEOs’ prior private equity (PE) target experiences on corporate policies. Based on difference-in-differences and propensity score matching analyses, public firm CEOs previously serving as CEOs in PE targets reduce investment by about 15 percent while enhancing patent values by over 7 percent after taking office compared to CEOs without such experiences. The effects are stronger if these CEOs (1) worked in targets invested by more reputable PE firms, (2) worked in targets invested by PE firms known for …

Integrating Systems, Processes, And Human Judgment: Three Essays On Value Creation With Supply Chain Analytics, Rebekah Inez Brau

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Big-data, analytics, automation, and machine learning are changing the role of managers in supply chain and operations functions. Extant research indicates that effective value creation by analytics is achieved through careful attention to three components: technology, people, and processes. As such, the purpose of my dissertation is to improve the integration of people in current supply chain and operations management systems with ever-changing technologies and processes. I focus on one critical function—demand planning—since it is increasingly influenced by predictive analytics yet can still require human judgment. My dissertation is comprised of three essays as follow.

In Essay 1, I implement …

Auditor Information Spillovers And Company Operating Performance: Evidence From Targeted Auditor Switches, Tyler Kleppe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine whether companies realize operational benefits from making “targeted auditor switches” (i.e., engaging a new auditor recently dismissed by a competitor company). While prior work provides evidence consistent with companies perceiving that auditor information spillovers are costly, there is sparse extant evidence as to whether auditors actually do transfer operational information across companies. I find that companies that switch to a competitor’s former auditor realize significant subsequent improvements in operating performance, and I provide evidence that the association between targeted auditor switches and improvements in operating performance varies predictably with several across- and within-market factors. In …

Market Coverage, Franchise Ownership, And Outlet Survival, Jingbo Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relationships between market coverage, franchise ownership, and franchise outlet survival rate.

In the first essay, I develop a spatial market coverage measure by integrating geocodes of outlets across five fast-food franchise systems. This spatial market coverage builds upon one navigation system algorithm by utilizing geographic coordinates. This measure can be applied by entrepreneurs to examine their geographic coverage and address issues of market oversaturation and lack of coverage.

In the second essay, I extend the spatial market coverage and examine how this spatial market coverage and franchise ownerships affect franchise outlet survival rate, which has not …

Outcomes Of Platform Openness In Complementary Markets, Franck Loic Soh Noume

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobile platform ecosystems are hyper-competitive environments. They provide important entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses that develop mobile apps. Platform openness is foundational in mobile platform ecosystems as it enables interactions between complements and platform. Although there are several studies on the impact of platform openness, our understanding of the outcomes of platform openness remains limited. In this dissertation, we examine thoroughly underexplored facets of platform openness as well as understudied outcomes. In the first essay, we investigate the impact of platform openness on incumbent complements’ performance outcomes. We unravel important causal mechanisms related to competition dynamics between new entrants and incumbent …

The Dynamics And Effects Of Supply Network Structure, Marat Davletshin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rising interest in network theory among supply chain scholars reflects an emerging shift in perspective. To deliver global speed, efficiency, and responsiveness, modern firms’ supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The patterns of interactions and interdependencies among hundreds of firms interconnected by these complex supply chains cannot be adequately explored from the dyadic perspective, which has dominated supply chain research for decades. Many supply chain scholars agree that the language of networks can provide a syntax and structure to describe and explore this complex reality. The actual application of network theory in supply chain research, however, has been limited. …

Collaborative Speculation And Overvaluation: Evidence From Social Media, Adam Barrett Booker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I use data from StockTwits and Twitter to provide evidence that investor attention on social media in the period before earnings is related to short-term overvaluation, consistent with bullish investors herding around common information. In the 2 to 60 days after earnings, returns for companies in the highest quintile of pre-earnings announcement investor attention are 4.2 percent lower than those of companies in the lowest quintile. I find evidence that the negative post-earnings drift result found in this study is related to investors waiting until after earnings are announced to enact costly arbitrage strategies. I further examine intra- and inter-network …

Life Styles And Psychographic Characteristics Of Elderly Consumers As Determinants Of Perceptions On Health Care, John Thanopoulos

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It appears that in today’s United States, the burden of disease prevention is assigned to the consumer. This study examines perceptions, health related information, and demographic data of a sample of elderly Arkansas consumers, with respect to preventive health care. The 226 respondents of the survey are members of the Arkansas Household Research Panel and over fifty-five years of age.

The data gathered were subjected to standard parametric and nonparametric statistical tests, factor analysis, cluster analysis, and discriminant analysis. The analysis identified two major segments. One, with seventy percent of the total, consists of respondents having a predominantly positive attitude …

An Inquiry Into The Possible Relationship Between The Success Of A Social Fraternity And Its Adherence To Business Management Practices And Principles, William Van Muse

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research tested the hypothesis that the better managed are social fraternities, the more successful they will be. The stated purpose of the study was to provide information to answer the following questions: 1) To what extent are selected management practices and principles utilized by college social fraternities? 2) Is there any significant relationship between the adherence to these managerial principles and practices and the degree of success achieved by the fraternities studied? Research design. Success was measured in comparative terms—how well the fraternity being studied ranked when compared to the other groups with which it competed. Six criteria were …