Digital Commons Network^™

An Examination Of Brand Avoidance Among Consumers Of Membership Business Models, Cara Peters, Bradley W. Brooks

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

The purpose of this study is to examine how the increasingly prevalent business membership model is linked to potential brand avoidance. Based on a qualitative examination of consumer complaints from two organizations that utilize membership business models, this research demonstrates how consumer complaints are highly consistent with established brand avoidance antecedents. The findings offer a cautionary warning to business decision-makers who manage membership business models with consumers as well as to those who are considering implementing such an approach. The implications for these decision-makers are discussed.

The Role Of Apparel In College Student Athletic Affiliation, Robin Hardin, Michelle L. Childs

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

Athletics is often considered the virtual front porch of a university, as it is often the most recognizable aspect of a college or university. This study examines how college students use apparel to affiliate with their university’s athletic brand. Results revealed three key factors influencing athletic-related merchandise preference: fashionable appeal, uniqueness, and official merchandise. Further analysis found that merchandise featuring official logos, colors, and recognizable branding elements significantly enhances consumers’ ability to associate with the university’s athletics brand. Gender differences emerged in preferences for fashionable items, with men showing greater interest. These findings provide valuable insights for marketers and university …

Trust And Fintech: A Review And Research Agenda, James F. Devlin, Sanjit K. Roy, Harjit Sekhon, S. M.A. Moin, Mehmet Sahiner

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The primary objective of this paper is to formulate a detailed research agenda focussed on trust in the context of FinTech. To achieve this objective, conceptualisations of trust and related constructs are reviewed, and a detailed model of trust is developed. The domain of FinTech is then introduced and is taken to include current and emerging innovations in financial services incorporating aspects of big data and AI, as well as open and decentralised finance and crypto assets. Typologies of FinTech services are also explored. Arguments concerning the importance of trust in financial services are then reviewed, along with prior studies …

Uwarunkowania Zarządzania Siecią Bankomatów W Polsce – Analiza Rentowności, Arkadiusz Manikowski, Rafał Zbyrowski

Monografie/Monographs

Monografia poświęcona jest kompleksowej analizie funkcjonowania, kosztów i rentowności sieci bankomatów w Polsce, z uwzględnieniem uwarunkowań technologicznych, społecznych, przestrzennych i ekonomicznych. Autorzy prezentują w niej swoje wnikliwe badania obecnego stanu rynku oraz argumenty na rzecz modyfikacji niektórych jego parametrów.

Conditions for Managing an ATM Network in Poland – Profitability Analysis

This monograph presents a comprehensive analysis of the functioning, costs, and profitability of ATM networks in Poland, considering technological, social, spatial, and economic conditions. The authors present their insightful research on the current state of the market and arguments for modifying some of its parameters.

A Study On The Impact Of Ceos’ Financial And Technical Backgrounds On The Innovation Strategy Of The Enterprise, Jianyu Cheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Amid regional economic integration and market competition, innovation has become a key driver for enterprises to gain competitive advantages and ensure sustainable development. As primary decision-makers in corporate strategy and resource allocation, chief executive officers (CEOs) impact the selection and implementation of innovation strategies through their financial and technical backgrounds, which influence their strategic cognition and risk preferences, leading to heterogeneous innovation behaviors. While existing research has examined the relationship between CEOs and corporate innovation, studies have inadequately explored CEOs’ diverse background characteristics, particularly the interaction between financial and technical backgrounds. Given the rising trend of CFOs and CTOs advancing …

From Discrete Manufacturing To Continuous Manufacturing: Examining The Relationship Among Digital Capability, Organizational Learning, And Enterprise Performance, Demu Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In 2018, Company J launched its intelligent drive digital transformation project, which was completed and entered operation in 2021. That December, the project obtained certification under Zhejiang Province's "1353" system for the future factory enterprises, marking a successful transition from discrete to continuous manufacturing. To address the asynchronous flows of logistics, information, personnel, capital, and value indiscrete manufacturing enterprises, as well as pain points such as lowper capita output, long product delivery cycles, and low annual inventory turnover rates, this study, based on organizational learning theory, constructs ananalytical model encompassing digital capability (independent variable X), organizational learning (mediating variable Z), …

The Impact Of Value Co-Creation On Organizational Resilience In Small And Medium-Sized Traditional Foreign Trade Enterprises, Dan Yan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Against the backdrop of increasing uncertainty in the global business environment, international scholarly attention to individual, group, and organizational resilience has risen significantly. Chinese export trading enterprises—especially small and medium-sized export trading enterprises(SMETEs)—face disadvantages such as small scale, weak financing capacity, limited access to information, and low brand strength. After experiencing shocks from digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, and the European energy crisis, these firms have been compelled to reconsider how to enhance their organizational resilience in order to adapt to an increasingly turbulent external environment.

First, this study selects Company H as a representative case of …

The Influence Of Culture + Technology On Night-Time Economy, Jianping Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As a vital component of modern urban economies, the night-time economy has emerged as a crucial pathway for stimulating domestic demand and promoting consumption upgrading. With the rapid development of digital technologies and increasingly diversified cultural demands, the deep integration of 'Culture + Technology' has provided new momentum for the innovative development of the night-time economy. This study focuses on how 'Culture + Technology' empowers the night-time economy, exploring its impact mechanisms, current status, and development pathways through theoretical analysis, case studies, and empirical surveys.

First, this paper constructs a theoretical framework for 'Culture + Technology' empowering the night-time economy …

The Impact Of Top Management Team Heterogeneity On Corporate Green Innovation, Xueyan Luo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

At present, green innovation has become a key path for enterprises to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, existing research pays limited attention to how internal governance factors—especially top management team (TMT) heterogeneity—affect green innovation. Based on Upper Echelons Theory, managerial cognition theory, and institutional theory, this paper constructs a framework of “TMT heterogeneity–green strategic orientation–green innovation,” and explores the impact of different types of heterogeneity and the moderating role of regional innovation environments. Heterogeneity is categorized into conflict-type (gender, age, financial background) and complementary-type (educational, professional, overseas background) to better explain its mechanisms.

Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed …

A Study On The Influence Of Entity Internet Hospital Platforms And Health Literacy Facilitation On Postoperative Patients’ Platform Usage, Hong Ye

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Entity Internet Hospital (EIH) is emerging online medical service platforms in China. Currently, while EIHs in China are developing rapidly, their usage rates remain low. However, postoperative patients have substantial follow-up consultation needs. Consequently, incentivizing postoperative patients to use EIH from the demand side is a highly challenging proposition in the current era. Grounded in Technology Acceptance Model and Health Belief Model, this study examined the impacts of platform and health literacy facilitation on platform usage (including intention and frequency) among 631 postoperative patients with cardiovascular disease from four medical institutions in Wuhan, and explored the moderating role of literacy …

Research On The Impact Mechanism Of The Development Level Of Smart Agriculture On Farmers' Income, Baoping Liu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Agriculture is a fundamental and strategic industry essential to national food security and farmers’ well-being. Faced with global population growth, climate change, and resource constraints, the traditional high-input agricultural model is unsustainable. Smart agriculture, empowered by IoT, big data, and AI, has become critical for agricultural transformation and sustainable development. However, existing research overemphasizes technical efficiency and neglects how smart agriculture systematically affects farmers’ income, especially its transmission mechanism and regional heterogeneity.

Against China’s rural revitalization and digital village strategy, this study investigates how smart agriculture development influences farmers’ income, using a hybrid framework of macro empirics and micro analysis. …

Chasing The Dream And Buying The Promise In A Conceptual Framework For Consumer Decision-Making, Casey H. Prentice

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

The American dream is a concept that is echoed across our society, and while the data show Americans do not overwhelmingly believe in the dream, marketers continue to pair it and the issue of economic prosperity in their agendas. Through a novel framework that overlaps a deeply studied mass communication theory with a decision-making framework used in marketing, this paper demonstrates a new lens to understand how marketers identify strategies and tactics, build agendas, and make sales by touting the American dream. As separate entities, decision-making models and agenda setting theory are powerful, but together can create an environment that …

Two Essays On Customer Loyalty, Arjang Attar Shoushtari

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Customer loyalty is vital for business success, yet most research treats loyal customers as a uniform group. This essay challenges that assumption by proposing that attitudinally loyal customers are psychologically heterogeneous. Drawing on Construal Level Theory (CLT), I introduce the construct of Consumer-Brand Construal Level (CBCL) to distinguish loyal customers based on how abstractly or concretely they construe their brand relationships. I conceptualize two loyalty mindsets, macro-loyalty (abstract, big-picture) and micro-loyalty (concrete, detail-focused), and argue that even highly loyal consumers differ meaningfully in their CBCL. I develop and validate a new CBCL scale (Studies 1–2) and then test how these …

Scoring Accuracy And Differential Rater Functioning Of Large Language Models (Llms) In Evaluating Short Student Essays Under Different Conditions: A Simulation Study, Majed Mahmoud Ajoudeh

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy and differential rater functioning (DRF) of LLMs in scoring short essays, based on synthetically generated data of 270 essays with varying quality. The LLMs scored the essays under three prompting conditions: without a rubric, with a brief rubric, and with a detailed rubric. Human benchmark ratings were also generated in comparison with the automated scores. The results showed that using detailed rubric improved accuracy and consistency with human raters. Regression analysis further revealed differential rater functioning: the LLMs were more likely to award higher scores to longer essays, favored indirect writing styles, and …

A Comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy Guide For Independent Musicians, William Elree Hilburn

Theses

Creating and implementing a sound digital marketing strategy is a crucial element to consider as an independent musician. In this thesis report and the strategy guide that follows, a number of current digital marketing strategies are discussed at length. The strategies that are discussed in this report and within the strategy guide have been gleaned through semi-structured qualitative interviews with two separate up-and-coming music artists. The information shared by these case studies has been documented and synthesised into this report, as well as, into a comprehensive strategy guide that has been written to aid fledgling music artists in their digital …

The Iron Pyramid: Expanding The Iron Triangle To Integrate Safety As A Fundamental Dimension Of Construction Success, Laura Cooley

All Theses

For more than fifty years, construction project success has been judged by staying on schedule, remaining within budget, and completing the planned scope of work—an approach commonly known as the “Iron Triangle” (Barnes, Ph.D., 2006). While these measures are important, they do not capture the full range of factors that determine whether a project truly succeeds.

This study introduces the “Iron Pyramid” (Cooley, 2025), a model that expands the traditional framework by adding a fourth dimension: safety. Safety is understood not simply as regulatory compliance or the absence of injuries, but as a holistic construct encompassing project culture, leadership practices, …

The Rhetoric Of Conceptual Metaphors In The Textbook Al-'Arabiyya Bayna Yadayk For Non-Native Speakers: A Cognitive Approach, Fawzi Ali Ali Soileh

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This research, entitled The Rhetoric of Conceptual Metaphors in the Textbook Al-'Arabiyya Bayna Yadayk for Non-Native Speakers: A Cognitive Approach, aims to examine the textbook prescribed for non-native learners at King Khalid University. The study explores the communicative dimension and the cognitive power that contributed to the construction of the book, in an attempt to answer a fundamental composite question: How did the cognitive mind construct its own metaphorical world within Al-'Arabiyya Bayna Yadayk? And what conceptual metaphors extended their influence in shaping this textbook? The key finding is the experts' sound awareness in addressing the needs of this diverse …

Chatgpt In Teaching English As A Foreign Language: Teacher And Learner Perspectives, Sameiha Alhussain N Khawaji

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This study investigates ChatGPT as a supplementary tool in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education through surveys of 150 teachers and 350 learners in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Results show that ChatGPT improves language proficiency by providing personalized feedback, conversational fluency (72% of users reported improvement), writing scores by 22% and vocabulary through contextualized practice. Teachers found it useful for lesson planning and administrative tasks. However, challenges such as plagiarism risks (15% of cases), occasional inaccuracies and cultural insensitivities especially in idiomatic and formal language use require ethical guidelines and human oversight. For example, Asian participants noted mismatches …

Digital Communications Between Firms And Investors: Impact Of Explanatory Responses On Investor Engagement In Online Financial Q&A, Runyu Wang, Zili Zhang, Keng Siau, Ziqiong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The emerging trend of digital communications between firms and investors through online question-and-answer (Q&A) platforms is recognized as a vital strategy for managing investor relations, contributing to enhanced market efficiency and information transparency through increased information exchange. Potential investors can seek responses from firm managers to address their information needs, thereby mitigating market uncertainties. To provide foundational insights, we conduct a survey of investors to assess their awareness, usage, and perceptions of firm-investor Q&A platforms. In the subsequent empirical study, we specifically focus on the substance of managers’ responses, which are primarily aimed at clarifying firm events or information. In …

Identity Salience Of Organizational Culture: The Intersection Of Racial And Occupational Identities In High-Risk Professions, Sarah Espinosa

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Despite decades of effort, issues of race and color in organizations remain unresolved. Representative Bureaucracy (RB) has been a necessary but insufficient response to these challenges. While RB promotes diversity and inclusion, it struggles to address deeper issues of equity and justice, which are seen in the persistence of police brutality, even with increased representation of officers of color. This dissertation will propose a new theoretical approach to address the shortcomings of RB, a framework for the Identity Salience of Organizational Culture (ISOC). The ISOC framework seeks to build beyond RB to explain how the culture of high-risk professions with …

Exploring Hiring Managers’ Strategies For Recruiting Diverse Educators In A Southeastern State, Keisa K. Davis Ma

Dissertations

This dissertation examined the strategies applied by hiring managers within one state in the southeastern United States to recruit diverse teachers. The purpose of the study was to explore hiring managers’ experiences and knowledge of minority teacher recruitment. The primary research question for this study was: What strategies do hiring managers in the school district under study find most effective in overcoming barriers to recruiting minority educators, and how do they measure their success? Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and thematic coding was used to arrive at emerging themes, patterns, and perceptions. The findings revealed that while hiring managers …

Purpose And Nonprofit Enterprise, Cathy Hwang, Dorothy S. Lund

Faculty Scholarship

Nonprofit enterprise is responsible for a large share of economic activity across the globe. And yet, leading theories fail to explain why nonprofit business survives and even thrives across a vast number of industries, ranging from artificial intelligence to beer brewing, despite an absence of shareholder control. Indeed, as shareholder ownership and intervention rights have become the core component of successful corporate governance, this success is all the more surprising.

This Essay offers a novel “purposeful enterprise” theory to explain the puzzling success of nonprofit enterprises. Drawing on research in behavioral economics and organizational science, it argues that organizational purpose …

Pension Plans Before And After Incorporation, Peter Elder, Daniel G. Stewart

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Checklist-Summary Of Tax Reform Act Of 1969, William T. Barnes

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Pension Plans Before And After Incorporation, Peter Elder, Daniel G. Stewart

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Does Employees’ Meaningfulness Of Work Mediate The Link Between Their Cognitive Diversity And Creative Process Engagement?, Mohammad Tamzid Hossain, Sabrin Sultana, Salma Begum, Md. Sahidur Rahman, Md. Aftab Uddin

Management Dynamics

This study aims to investigate how employees' cognitive diversity affects their creative process engagement, with a focus on the role of their meaningfulness of work as a mediator in this connection. A survey was used with a quantitative method to collect responses from 207 employees of small, medium, and large service and manufacturing businesses in Bangladesh that were registered with the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The collected data were then analyzed using Smart PLS 4 to evaluate the hypotheses and examine the mediating effect of the study. The findings reveal that employees’ cognitive diversity has a significant impact …

Risk Exposure And Stakeholder Oversight In College Sports: Lessons From A Lightning Incident, John J. Miller Dr., Jason W. Lee Dr., Elizabeth A. Gregg, Jeffrey F. Levine

The COSMA Journal

The management of collegiate athletic events increasingly demands systematic approaches to risk identification, assessment, and mitigation, yet risk management education within athletics remains inconsistent. As a result, athletic directors, coaches, and facility managers frequently lack the formal preparation necessary to design and implement effective risk management policies, thereby exposing institutions to operational disruption and legal liability. Severe weather events, particularly lightning storms, underscore the importance of integrating legal principles such as duty of care, premises liability, and foreseeability into institutional planning. This case study, based on a real-life incident, shows that athletic administrators, often with limited formal training in risk …

The Great Divide – A New Leader, A New Identity? Examining A Mascot Controversy And The Role Of The New Coach In School Rebranding, Jason W. Lee, Elizabeth A. Gregg, John J. Miller

The COSMA Journal

Divisive school imagery can significantly impact academic branding while raising ethical concerns. In the presented case study, issues such as those encountered by Marty Lundy, a newly hired head football coach, are addressed as he faces divisive imagery at his new school. As Marty is aware of the divisive nature of his school's imagery, he must navigate the challenge of balancing the school's tradition and community heritage with the need to promote a welcoming environment and address the potential impact on the school's reputation. Consequently, this case study encourages examining various brand communication and ethical strategies necessary for addressing such …

Subject Index, 12 Months Ended March 1974, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Professions At Work: Separating The Wheat From The Chaff In 1974, Joel M. Forster

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.