Digital Commons Network^™

An Assessment Of Tire-Buying Among Millennial Consumers, John R. Hojnacki, Caleb P. Ohrn, Ben M. Nelson, Addie A. Hujar, Taylor J. Kirian

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study first examines general purchasing trends among millennial consumers before digging into the perceptions that millennial consumers have of the tire-purchasing experience. Our initial hypothesis was that the negative view of tire-purchasing held by many millennial age consumers was driven by the difficulty of the process itself. Through our own research, we discovered that it is the perceptions held by those who have not yet purchased tires rather than the reality of the purchasing experience that is the issue.

Applying User Experience (Ux) Design In Interior Space For Art, Science Museums, And Learning Environments, Zainab Al-Hajji

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research study explores the role of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) in educational spaces: museums, science centers, galleries, libraries, and classrooms. This study examines the effects of enhancing displays in learning spaces and focuses on users’ interactions and experiences. This project observes the effectiveness of learning modes and styles applied in different museums and focuses on the users’ experiences in an educational environment, which was measured through student users’ impressions, behaviors, and performance. It was hypothesized that students would retain more information through the experience. The concepts covered included using UX/UI on websites and small devices. Results …

Product Packaging, Pester Power, & Preschoolers, Casie Prible

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to lay the groundwork that could lead to future research by exploring the pester power of preschoolers in reference to product packaging and grocery shopping and with regard to gender, age, and birth order. Preschoolers can act as powerful persuaders on parental spending, specifically through the use of nagging, pestering, or aggressive behaviors. Marketers often employ techniques such as using child-oriented packaging to attract a child to certain products in order to motivate a desire for purchase and thus affecting the buying decisions of parents. This study analyzes preschoolers (2 to 5 years-of-age) in …

Behaviors, Knowledge, And Education Of Leave No Trace Principles In The Red River Gorge Rock Climbing Community, Brian Gregory Clark

Online Theses and Dissertations

Rock climbing is becoming a very popular and mainstream outdoor activity. With the growth in rock climbing comes an increase in the number of visitors this sport attracts. The increase in visitor usage undoubtedly leads to an impact on the natural environment surrounding these rock climbing areas. Rock climbers acknowledge the impacts that are being made and are taking initiative to lessen their impact while visiting rock climbing areas such as the Red River Gorge (RRG) in rural southeast Kentucky. We know that rock climbers make a substantial economic impact while visiting and this dissertation looks at the environmental knowledge …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Green Behaviors And Attitudes Towards Green Marketing Initiatives, Sam Fullerton, Tammy Mccullough, Lewis Hershey

AMTP Proceedings 2017

A sample of 205 university students provided input regarding an array of 32 issues germane to both green marketing and green consumption. A diverse array of behaviors and opinions were articulated. Respondents reported a high propensity to engage in recycling, donating used goods, and purchasing products with a longer life expectancy. They favored environmentally-friendly actions such as focusing on cleaner and more efficient energy alternatives. There was a strong belief that individuals can make a difference. A comparison of business and nonbusiness students documented significant differences on two of the 32 issues under investigation with nonbusiness students expressing greater concern …

Strategies To Improve Millennial Employee Engagement In The Luxury Resort Industry, Kei-Lin Cerf

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Millennials are estimated to compose half of the workforce by 2020. Many hospitality researchers have studied Millennial employee engagement, but less is known about how to apply strategies that are authentically engaging for Millennials. The purpose of this study was to explore Millennial employee engagement strategies. The research questions for this study were used to examine the engagement strategies of luxury resort leaders and how Millennial employees perceived engagement. A single case study design was used to gather interview, questionnaire, and company document data from employees of a luxury resort in Hawai`i. Kahn's employee engagement theory served as the basis …

Correlations Between Management Behaviors And Financial Indicators With Fda Compliance Leading To Medicine Shortages, Francisco Gutierrez-Perez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the first 3 years of the Obama Administration, 2009-2011, the number of warning letters issued to pharmaceutical firms for manufacturing and quality issues increased by 81% to 49 letters. Only 9 letters were issued in the last 3 years of the George W. Bush Administration. Shortfalls in compliance and product quality led to medicine shortages that affected patients' treatment and health. This quantitative study sought to learn to what extent, if any, the independent variables, management behaviors and financial indicators at pharmaceutical firms in the United States, correlated with, or predicted, the dependent variable, compliance with the FDA regulations. …

Strategies For Reducing Employee Stress And Increasing Employee Engagement, Kumar G. Subramaniam

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Stress inside and outside of work affects employee productivity. In 2013, the estimated impact of employee absenteeism on U.S. businesses was $225 billion per year through reduced efficiency, overtime wages, fixed fringe benefits, and the cost of replacement employees. Based on the social exchange theory and the theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the strategies that HR leaders in a single organization used to reduce employee disengagement caused by stress. Using semistructured interviews, data were collected from 12 HR leaders and line managers within a single healthcare organization in eastern Tennessee. …

Strategies To Secure Sustainable Funding For Nonprofit Organizations, Jasmine Y. Hardy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There are 1.4 million active nonprofit organizations in the United States; however, funding sustainability often forces nonprofit senior leaders into closure, which can lead to increased unemployment and decreased services provided to local communities. Nonprofit senior leaders seek help from scholars, at times, to identify strategies to secure sustainable funding sources, improve the sustainability of funding, or prevent or reverse losses of funding to their organizations. Through the conceptual lens of the general systems theory, the 2015-2016 Baldrige Excellence Framework and Criteria, and single- and double-loop learning, this single-case study explored strategies used to secure sustainable funding for nonprofit organizations …

A Systems View Of Is Governance And It Governance: A Case Study Of The Virginia Department Of Transportation, Bernard Farkas

Theses and Dissertations

A review of the research related to Information Technology (IT) governance reveals that researchers have yet to use systems theory directly as a basis for understanding IT governance; however, analysis of these researchers’ various definitions of IT governance shows a concurrence between these definitions and the characteristics of a system. This case study research adopts a systems imagination to observe IS and IT governance in the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), which has a budget of over $5 billion and over 7,500 employees and has recently conducted a strategic assessment of its IT organization - including IS and IT governance. …

Corporate Governance And The Shareholder: Asymmetry, Confidence, And Decision-Making, John Buchanan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the decade following the ten-plus percent stockmarket collapse of 2000, regulators enacted a myriad of regulations in response to increasing angst experienced by U.S. capital market retail investors. Systemic asymmetric disclosures have fractured investor confidence prompting many commentators to characterize the relationship between Wall Street and the investment community on main street as dire. Though copious works exist on the phenomenon of corporate behaviors, especially matters of shareholder welfare, weak boards, pervious governance mechanisms, and managerial excess, current literature has revealed a dearth in corporate governance praxis specific to the question and effects of asymmetric disseminations and its principal …

Servant Leadership: What Makes It An Effective Leadership Model., Janice Poland Tanno

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Servant leadership (SL), a universal, ethical leadership style, consistently produces high performance and employee engagement. For the last two decades, lack of business ethics in decision making by senior leaders has resulted in many negative outcomes, such as the WorldCom scandal. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to identify and report the lived experiences of senior leaders in relation to decision making in SL organizations in the southwestern United States. The study's theoretical/conceptual foundations encompassed Maslow's motivation theories, decision theory, spirituality, spiritual intelligence, Cicero's virtue theory of ethics, and Greenleaf's SL. Data collection involved the use of semistructured …

A Video-Based Screening System For Automated Risk Assessment Using Nuanced Facial Features, Steven J. Pentland, Nathan W. Twyman, Judee K. Burgoon, Jay F. Nunamaker, Christopher B.R. Diller

Faculty Publications

This study investigates the development of an automated interviewing system that uses facial behavior as an indicator of the risk of given illicit behavior. Traditional facial emotion indicators of risk in semistructured dialogue may have limitations in an automated approach. However, an initial analysis of mock crime interviews suggests that the face may exhibit some form of rigidity during highly structured interviews. An interviewing system design using facial rigidity analysis was implemented and experimentally evaluated, the results of which further reveal that the rigidity is fairly generalized across the face. Whereas existing theory traditionally focuses on leakage of facial expressions, …

The Impact Of Green Businesses On The Building Of Sustainable Communities, Emily L. Plummer

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Instilling a sense of community within businesses, the basis of our society, may strengthen community building and therefore our path towards sustainable communities. Thus, through a literature review, buyer behavior, green businesses, sustainable communities, and community building have been defined in order to further research regarding whether green businesses have a more significant impact on the well-being of a community. Additionally, six case studies of local Ypsilanti businesses were conducted through applying the Green America Green Business five-part criteria, sustainable community building criteria, and analogical reasoning to analyze whether a business could be classified as a green company and whether …

Improving Search Ranking Using A Composite Scoring Approach, Larry D. Snedden

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the improvement to relevance in computerized search results is studied. Information search tools return ranked lists of documents ordered by the relevance of the documents to the user supplied search. Using a small number of words and phrases to represent complex ideas and concepts causes user search queries to be information sparse. This sparsity challenges search tools to locate relevant documents for users. A review of the challenges to information searches helps to identify the problems and offer suggestions in improving current information search tools. Using the suggestions put forth by the Strategic Workshop on Information Retrieval …

What Do We Really Know About How Habituation To Warnings Occurs Over Time? A Longitudinal Fmri Study Of Habituation And Polymorphic Warnings, Anthony Vance, Brock Kirwan, Daniel Bjornn, Jeff Jenkins, Bonnie Brinton Anderson

Faculty Publications

A major inhibitor of the effectiveness of security warnings is habituation: decreased response to a repeated warning. Although habituation develops over time, previous studies have examined habituation and possible solutions to its effects only within a single experimental session, providing an incomplete view of the problem. To address this gap, we conducted a longitudinal experiment that examines how habituation develops over the course of a five-day workweek and how polymorphic warnings decrease habituation. We measured habituation using two complementary methods simultaneously: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye tracking.

Our results show a dramatic drop in attention throughout the workweek …

St. John Publishing Business Plan, Nicholas Leo

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Context In It Assimilation: A Multi-Method Study Of A Saas Platform In The Us Nonprofit Sector, Ryan T. Wright, Nicholas Roberts, David W. Wilson

Faculty Publications

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) operate in environments characterized by growing competition for resources and greater stakeholder demands for accountability, which makes deploying and maintaining information systems a struggle. In this competitive, resource-constrained environment, enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms offer NPOs a cost-effective way access reliable, low-maintenance information technology services. Thus, the extent to which NPOs assimilate SaaS is an important area of inquiry. Yet despite the wealth of research on organizational IT assimilation, we know little regarding whether, when, and how NPOs assimilate IT innovations. We further our understanding of NPO assimilation of SaaS by conducting a context-based study. To do so, …

Internet-Based Behavior Of It Professionals: Implications For Online Ergonomic Education To Prevent Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders, Priyadarshini Pattath

Theses and Dissertations

INTERNET-BASED BEHAVIOR OF IT PROFESSIONALS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ONLINE ERGONOMIC EDUCATION TO PREVENT WORK-RELATED MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS

By Priyadarshini Pattath, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2017 Director: Dr. Robin Hurst, Assistant Professor of Adult Learning, Teaching and Learning,

School of Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the preferences of medium of ergonomic education and views about self-directed online training modules to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in computer professionals and understand their perspectives and experiences about online health information seeking using a …

Social Sustainability: The Role Of Ecotourism In Regenerating Cultural And Environmental Histories In Rio De Janeiro, Nia Mcallister

Pomona Senior Theses

Ecotourism is a rapidly growing global export industry that aims to uphold the ethics of responsible tourism by engaging with local communities and encouraging environmentally conscious travel. With existing critiques of the greenwashing of ecotourism and the tendency for tourism agencies to exploit host communities, I advocate for participatory community-based models of ecotourism. This thesis explores both the material and conceptual benefits of community-based ecotourism through the critical examination of community-based ecotourism projects in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Focusing on the implementation of ecotourism in of some of Rio de Janeiro’s peripheral communities, areas that are impacted by social and …

From Yosemite To A Global Market: How Patagonia, Inc. Has Created An Environmentally Sustainable And Socially Equitable Model Of Supply-Chain Management, Mary-Clare Bosco

Pomona Senior Theses

There is an urgent pressure of the time (2016) to re-evaluate our patterns of consumption to adapt to changing climates and reduce waste and pollution. Because an immediate restructuring of global production strategies is not likely any time soon, industrial innovators are finding new ways of redesigning supply-chain management in efforts to move towards environmentally sustainable business in which all manufacturing practices are transparent. Patagonia, Inc. is a testament to the often-debated question of economic value in green business practices, and this thesis acts as an outline as to how they arrived at such an impressive presence in the business …

Eco-Label Certification: A Case Study Of The Campeche Shrimp Fishery, Mexico, Antonio Di Cintio, Luis Bourillón Moreno

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco—label certifies that seafood comes from a sustainable source. The use of this eco—label lags behind in the developing world, where ecosystem approaches to fishery management have not yet been widely implemented. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization under its REBYC—II LAC project is addressing ecosystem concerns within the shrimp trawl fisheries of a number of developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by helping them to improve management of the negative ecosystem impacts by modifying their gear to reduce by—catch and habitat damage. This study investigates how the potential improvements identified by the …

Communication Strategies Used During Organizational Change In A Health Care Organization, Amber Rose Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than 4.9 million businesses exist in the United States, and leaders within these businesses have to acclimate to change. Clear and effective communication is vital to the success of an organization. According to scholars and health care leaders focusing on strategies to communicate change during organizational change is a critical aspect of sustainability and profitability. The conceptual framework of this study was communication theory. The purpose of this single case study was to explore successful strategies that some health care leaders used to communicate during organizational change in a health care organization in El Paso, Texas. The data collection …

Exploring Strategies Microenterprise Owners Use To Succeed In Business Beyond 2 Years, Dr. Tamika Ebony Haynes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, microenterprises, critical segment of the small business population, accounts for 110 million small businesses that source new jobs. Despite the increase in the number of created businesses in the U.S., more than 70% of microenterprise business owners are unsuccessful after 2 years. The multiple case study included 6 participants living in Houston, Texas, and intended to explore business strategies microenterprise event management owners used to succeed in business beyond 2 years. The conceptual framework that grounded the study was the 5-stage small business growth model and the 5-stage of the evolution of entrepreneurship theory. The data …

Sustainment Strategies Small Business Owners Use For More Than 5 Years, Son Thanh Nguyen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

U.S. Small Business Administration reports that small businesses are one of the pillars of the U.S. economy, providing employment, innovation, and productivity. However, these businesses are constantly faced with challenges resulting from limited resources and continuous technological advances. This qualitative multiple-case study was performed to explore the strategies that small business owners (SBOs) in Maryland use to acquire capital to sustain their businesses financially for more than 5 years. The study's framework, the strategic management theory, was applied to determine the most effective approaches for the small businesses. Face-to-face interviews with 6 recruited SBOs were performed. A qualitative thematic analysis …

Improving Mobile Phone Banking Usefulness, Usability, Risk, Cost, And Intention To Adopt, Ali Parfait Hebie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Millions of people use mobile phone banking daily, and business leaders should understand the factors influencing mobile phone banking adoption among users. Based on the theory of technology acceptance model and the innovation diffusion theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between usefulness, ease of use, risk, cost, and mobile phone banking adoption in Burkina Faso. One hundred and six mobile phone banking users living in the city of Ouagadougou completed the online survey created to measure consumers understanding of mobile phone banking. Results of the multiple linear regression analysis indicated a statistically significant relationship …

Exploring The Lives Of Women Who Lead, Susan Cloninger

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Scholars have identified various reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the upper echelons of organizations.This study used grounded theory methodology enhanced by situational analysis to explore how American women at senior levels in large organizational contexts engage and negotiate the totality of their situation.Utilizing a predominately White, married, middle to upper class, heterosexual sample, this study sought to understand how women create and consign meaning around their experiences; how they experience the fluidity and boundaries of multiple identities; and how they experience the entanglement of macro, meso, and micro societal forces.It explores relationships among factors participants named as influential …

The Fiduciary Enterprise Of Corporate Law, Christopher Bruner

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Native Advertising: A Close Look At An Emerging Advertising Unit, David Kamerer

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study is a content analysis of a random sample of in-feed native ads, as curated by the Sharethrough Native Advertising Leaderboard. A native ad is paid content that looks like organic content and is served in the same feed. Native ads can earn premium CPMs for publishers, while giving advertisers a “lean in” format that online readers may actually enjoy. What are these native ads like? They utilized a mixture of assets including text (almost all), photos (an average of five), videos (almost half had one or more), interactive elements (20 percent) and GIFs. Only 75 percent of ads …

Foundations In Wisconsin: A Directory [36th Ed. 2017], Marquette University - Funding Information Center, John Brick, Mary Frenn, Brittany Carloni, Jeremy Cluth, Kathryn Hendrickson, Sarah Holland, Davis Wetherell

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory

The 2017 edition of Foundations in Wisconsin is the 36th production of the print directory and the 17th year of the web-based database (www.wifoundations.org) The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. Additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation websites, and annual reports.