An Assessment Of Microlending Programs In The Alabama Black Belt Region, Md Z. Mutaleb, Ntam R. Baharanyi, Nii O. Tackie, Robert Zabawa

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of selected socioeconomic factors on microlending in the Alabama Black Belt. It used logistic regression to identify the link between borrower socioeconomic characteristics and loan repayment rate from existing and previous microloan programs. It was hypothesized that borrower gender, age, level of education, household income, and credit score has a major impact on loan repayment. The results of study indicated that only credit score had a statistically significant effect on loan repayment. This finding underscores the importance of credit score and credit repair management in existing microloan programs, given …

Nonprofit Leadership: A Study Of Governance Changes Over Time, Daisha M. Merritt

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This is a leadership study understood through board governance in nonprofit organizations. The study sought to discover if there were indicators of coercive institutional isomorphism occurring in human service nonprofit organizations in the United States. IRS 990 tax forms were compiled from 2008- 2012 to determine if there were increasing levels of reported governance practices. Methodology included factor analysis, comparison of means, trend analysis, and regression models. Results indicated that there is an overall trend of increasing reported practices of governance in human service nonprofit organizations. Board size is the most significant indicator associated with changes in reported governance practices. …

7 Tips To Grow Your Rural Business With Purpose And Meaning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this article is to help rural entrepreneurs discover ways to grow their businesses with Living with Purpose and Meaning Megatrend.

Free To Play: Mobile Gaming And The Precipitous Rise Of Freemium, Craig Heier

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

With the abundance of games that enter the App Store marketplace, developers struggle to compete for the user’s attention and potential download. Unlike traditional console-games, mobile-based consumers tend to be more apprehensive towards purchasing an app or a game if they are unable to trial it beforehand. These factors have contributed to the freemium business model becoming the face of the mobile gaming industry.

Firing Threats: Incentive Effects And Impression Management, Brice Corgnet, Roberto Hérnan-Gonzalez, Stephen J. Rassenti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We study the effect of firing threats in a virtual workplace that reproduces features of existing organizations. We show that organizations in which bosses can fire up to one third of their workforce produce twice as much as organizations for which firing is not possible. Firing threats sharply decrease on-the-job leisure. Nevertheless, organizations endowed with firing threats underperformed those using individual incentives. In the presence of firing threats, employees engage in impression management activities to be seen as hard-working individuals in line with our model. Finally, production levels dropped substantially when the threat of being fired was removed, whereas on-the-job …

Robust Determinants Of Bilateral Trade, Marianne Baxter, Jonathan Hersh

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

What are the policies and country-level conditions which best explain bilateral trade flows between countries? As databases expand, an increasing number of possible explanatory variables are proposed that influence bilateral trade without a clear indication of which variables are robustly important across contexts, time periods, and which are not sensitive to inclusion of other control variables. To shed light on this problem, we apply three model selection methods – Lasso reguarlized regression, Bayesian Model Averaging, and Extreme Bound Analysis -- to candidate variables in a gravity models of trade. Using a panel of 198 countries covering the years 1970 to …

Sustainability In Government Contracts: A Measure Of Performance From The Contractor Perspective, Tamara P. Williams

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Studies in Government contracting are relatively new manifestation to academic research. Expanding theories to practitioner challenges may offer new concepts and insights to potential solutions to these challenges. Through a review of relevant literature, the researcher sought to 1) identify an operational definition of sustainability in government contracting and 2) bridge gaps in information by exploring sustainability factors available for successful performance in government contracting. Findings provide noteworthy contributions of practices available to both businesses and contracting professionals designed to improve contracting performance and enhance business longevity for government contractors.

Utilization Of Social Media In Marketing Classes, Charlotte Allen

Bright Ideas Conference

The goal of this paper is to highlight how instructors may integrate the different social media into various marketing classes. The paper will address the major social networks, and then follow with discussions of microblogging, media sites, and social gaming. Given that there is a great deal of research highlighting the effectiveness of utilizing social media in academic classes, this paper focuses on providing practical guidance as to how social media could be integrated into the classroom, homework, and project experience.

Under Armour Consulting Report, Heather Dommer

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Under Armour has been taking the Athletic Apparel industry by storm. From their start in 1996 as a small performance apparel company to becoming the second biggest athletic apparel brand in the United States in 2014 (Peterson). The secret to their success lies within the products. All products have a moisture wicking fabric that eliminates the sweat-soaked fabric of normal sports apparel. Industry: The industry of Athletic Apparel is very intense and innovative one. There are numerous competitors striving to be number one and trying to distinguish themselves from each other while selling similar products. This is an industry that …

Become A Future-Focused Leader: Use Three Megatrends To Grow Your Rural Business, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. This article discusses three megatrends shaping the future of rural businesses:

1) The Rise of the #GigEconomy

2) Living with Purpose and Meaning

3) The Decentralized Marketplace

The article also provides coaching tips for rural entrepreneurs on how to use megatrends to grow their businesses.

While many companies are struggling to keep up with the rapid rate of change, …

Airline Quality Rating 2015, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Airline Quality Rating Report

Take the 2015 Airline Passenger Survey

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was developed and first announced in early 1991 as an objective method for assessing airline quality on combined multiple performance criteria. This current report, the Airline Quality Rating 2015, reflects monthly Airline Quality Rating scores for calendar year 2014. AQR scores for 2015 are based on 15 elements in four major areas that focus on airline performance aspects important to air travel consumers over the calendar year of 2014.

The Airline Quality Rating 2015 is a summary of month-by-month quality ratings for U.S. airlines that are required to report …

Evaluating A Project-Based Learning Approach To The Bgsu Business Curriculum, Kara Harmeyer

Honors Projects

Inspiration for my honors project came from an assignment that I completed in a previous marketing course. This assignment is the only experience that I have had with project-based learning, but it certainly made an impact on me. My honors project presented the perfect opportunity for learning more about project-based learning and the way it is used in educational settings. In addition to the benefits and challenges associated with project-based learning, I also researched the characteristics and learning styles of millennial students to understand whether project based-learning is compatible. In conclusion, I evaluated how project-based learning could be utilized in …

2015 Ijbe Front Matter, Tamra Connor

International Journal for Business Education

1. Editorial Board
2. President's Letter
3. SIEC-ISBE International

Assessing The Commercial Aviation Impact Of The Year 2000 Open Skies Agreements Between The United States And African Countries With Longstanding Flights, Tyler B. Spence, Micah Walala, Richard O. Fanjoy

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

The U.S. started a comprehensive campaign towards Open Skies agreement in 1992. The major benefits of Open sky agreement are reported to include increase of passenger and cargo volume between partners. This study analyzes passenger traffic and cargo volume between six African countries that have had commercial aviation with the U.S. since 1990 to 2014, and with direct flights between them. Two of the countries have had no Open Skies agreement with the U.S., while four have had Open Skies agreement beginning in 2000. A multi linear modeling process was applied on the two categories to determine whether there is …

Consumer Perception Of Tactile Packaging: A Research Study On Preferences Of Soft Touch And Hi Rise Coatings In Cosmetic Packaging, Malcolm G. Keif Ph.D., Colleen Twomey, Andrea Stoneman

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

A choice-based conjoint study was conducted sampling 400 individuals to determine their preference for Soft Touch and raised tactile coatings, which are sometimes called Hi Rise or profile coatings. Soft Touch coatings have a velvety, warm feel to them, and Hi Rise coatings simulate embossing with a glossy appearance to them. Both are considered tactile coatings, engaging the sense of touch.

Demographic profile data, level of agreement about statements related to cosmetic packaging and packaging choice set selections were collected. The conjoint sets contained three attributes: design color, tactile coatings, and price.

Design choice was split. Approximately half of the …

Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Authorship, and hence, initial ownership of copyrighted works is oftentimes controlled by the 1976 Copyright Act’s work made for hire doctrine. This doctrine states that works created by employees within the scope of their employment result in the employer owning the copyright. One key determination in this analysis is whether the hired party is an employee or independent contractor. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court, in CCNV v. Reid, answered the question of how employees are distinguished from independent contractors by setting forth a list of factors courts should consider. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give further guidance on …

Use Of Smartphones In Hospitals, N. A. Thomairy, M. Mummaneni, S. Alsalamah, N. Moussa, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Mobile technology has begun to change the landscape of the medical profession with more than two-thirds of physicians regularly using smart phones. Smartphones have allowed healthcare professionals and the general public to communicate more efficiently, collect data and facilitate the clinical decision making. The methodology for this study was a qualitative literature review following a systematic approach of the smartphone usage among physicians in hospitals. Fifty-one articles were selected for this study based on inclusion criteria. The findings were classified and described into seven categories: use of smartphone in obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, radiology, and dermatology which were chosen …

Effects Of International Study Tours On Attitude Toward Doing Business Globally: Assurance Of Learning In Executive Mba Programs, Uday S. Tate, Kamal Fatehi, Basanna Patagundi

Management Faculty Research

The past two decades have experienced and realized the wave of globalization as pervasive and impactful imperative in the world of academia, and not just in the corporate world. This realization is reflected in the 2011-13 Report by AACSB Task Force on Globalization of Management Education (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business - International, June 2011-13). The AACSB report highlights broad globalization trends in management education that have drawn the attention of institutions, corporations and business schools alike, that are striving to prepare their key stakeholders (managers and students) to face today’s complex global challenges. Today’s increasingly integrated …

Adoption Factors Impacting Human Resource Analytics Among Human Resource Professionals, Roslyn Vargas

HCBE Theses and Dissertations

In today’s fast paced, ever-changing world, one cannot help hearing the terms Big Data and analytics. The Internet holds vast amounts of data and this data, for example in retail, is being used to predict shopping habits, current needs, trends, and more. Why should this be limited to the retail side of an organization? Today, there is a more significant push for Human Resource (HR) professionals to be strategic business partners, and, therefore, HR professionals need to work on leading, not lagging, in the area of measurements and analytics. Some organizations that have adopted the use of analytics in their …

Creating A Business Plan For Thin Air Reflections, Savanah Thompson

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.