Digital Commons Network^™

Predictive Analysis Of Local House Prices: Leveraging Machine Learning For Real Estate Valuation, Joey Hernandez, Danny Chang, Santiago Gutierrez, Paul Huggins

SMU Data Science Review

This paper presents a comprehensive study examining the real estate market potential in the dynamic urban landscapes of Frisco and Plano, Texas. Combining traditional real estate analysis with cutting-edge machine learning techniques, the study aims to predict home prices and assess investment feasibility. Leveraging these findings, the study proposes a strategic focus on predictive modeling and investment potential identification, emphasizing the continual refinement of machine learning models with updated data to accurately forecast changes in the real estate market. By harnessing the predictive power of these models, investors can identify high-growth areas and optimize their investment decisions, thus capitalizing on …

Enhancing Customer Support Operations Through Gpt & Q-Learning: A Model Study, Adam Alidra, Bob O'Brien, Dalton Young

SMU Data Science Review

Abstract. “Growth strategies that are purpose-led, customer-centric, experience-driven, data/AI-enabled, and technology-scaled require new mindsets…” (Cornfield, 2021). What can we take from this? Business growth and customer experience are inextricably tied together. Therefore, thriving, as an organization, is dependent on reimagining enterprise operations through modern, scalable data and AI technologies. Our study aims to enhance support operations with emerging AI capabilities, including OpenAI’s LLM models, built on self-attention mechanism transformer architecture, and tailored for business needs through prompt engineering. Our research uses Markov Decision Process and the Q-learning algorithm to evaluate synthetically created support incidents. Through this set of methods, our …

1 A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Hospital-Based Physical Therapy Department Leaders’ Most Successful Change Management Initiative, Joseph Patanella

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

ABSTRACT

A phenomenological study of the lived experiences of hospital-based physical therapy department leaders’ most successful change management initiative

Problem: Change management initiatives are consistently employed in healthcare to promote quality care. Of concern is that not all initiatives are successful. Individuals involved in successful change management can offer insight to those approaching initiatives.

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the lived experiences of hospital-based physical therapy department leaders’ most successful change management initiative.

Methods: The research design was a qualitative approach. A phenomenological research design was employed, using the voice of a group that has …

An Empirical Study Of Student Satisfaction At Selected Private Universities In Bangladesh, Mubina Khondkar, Abureza M. Muzareba

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Satisfying students in higher education has proven to be a difficult task, although universities are striving to meet student needs and expectations. Private universities are trying to become more student-oriented and are seeking to understand students’ perceptions of higher education facilities. This research was designed to measure the gap between students’ expectations and perceptions of various aspects of private universities in Bangladesh. It uses a SERVQUAL framework and the Gaps Model of Service Quality. The population of students at private universities in Bangladesh is represented by a sample of 412 respondents from five top-tier private universities. Findings indicate that the …

Cool Brands And Their Grateful Fans: A Multi-Method Exploration Of Brand Coolness And Consumer Gratitude, Melanie Moore Koskie

Doctoral Dissertations

Over the course of three essays, this dissertation explores brand coolness, gratitude, and the relationship between the two. In the first essay, cool brands and their marketing outcomes are viewed through the lens of standing out and fitting in—two paradoxical motivations held together in the concept of cool. Utilizing structural equation modeling, I examine the relevant relationships between consumer’s motivations to stand out and fit in, the corresponding brand coolness attributes of subcultural and popular, the consumer emotional response of gratitude, and a consumer’s willingness to pay more for cool brands. Importantly, this essay finds that the consumer emotion of …

Demands At Work: The Moderating Influence Of Motivation On The Relationship Between Challenge Demands And Employee Work Engagement, Lauren R. Dinnat

Doctoral Dissertations

Work engagement is a popular topic due to the positive outcomes linked to it. For example, engaged workers are shown to be more productive workers and better organizational citizens. The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory has been the most widely accepted explanatory model for work engagement due to its flexibility to be applied to all work environments. While the JD-R does not argue that motivation is fixed, it does not account for moment-to-moment changes in motivation. A state theory of motivation that examines how motivation may impact the relationships between demands and work engagement has yet to be examined. This study …

The Impact Of Irrational Beliefs On Dysfunctional Decision-Making In B2b Salespeople, Barron W. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations

The complexity of the contemporary business-to-business (B2B) sales landscape requires salespeople to respond faster, be more knowledgeable, and add more value to buyer interactions than ever before. As such, B2B salespeople must carefully consider the impact of their decisions since they have the potential to directly impact organizational revenue and bottom-line outcomes. The present research utilizes rational-emotive behavior theory to examine judgment and decision-making in B2B salespeople. Research questions are presented and tested with a sample of 306 B2B salespeople using structural equation modeling. The results of the analysis reveal that irrational beliefs lead to dysfunctional emotions, and in turn, …

The (Limited) Competitive Advantage Of Tax Planning, Gang Pan

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation documents that corporate tax planning innovations, proxied by decreases in effective tax rates, contribute to excess shareholder returns and, thereby, a competitive advantage. Compared to other improvements in firm performance, tax planning innovations have smaller factor loadings and explain fewer variations in excess returns. Notably, sales growth explains more than seven times the variations in excess returns compared to tax planning innovations. Tax planning even falls behind interest expense reductions, given the challenge of altering firm capital structure. To address the concern that changes in firm performance drive the association between tax planning innovations and excess returns, I …

A Study On The Impact Of Psychological Factors On Investment Decisions Of Gen Y - It Employees, Tamil Nadu, Karthikeyan S

Theses and Dissertations

Investments are indeed vital to the economic development of a country. Individual savings and investment patterns play an important role in any economy since they are major components of financial markets. The investment pattern and type of investment products preferred by investors decide the future of the economy. As the Investment decision-making became crucial for individual investors since it can result in significant gains or losses and also has effect on the economy. As a result, each individual investor needs to be so cautious of how they make decisions and what influences them. The people were categorised by the generations …

Exploring Wasta And Religious Values And Principles: A Case Study Of Employee Engagement In The Uae Hospitality Sector, Reimara Valk, Lina Yousif, Lynne Mcgarvey

Arab Economic and Business Journal

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the socio-cultural concept ‘Wasta’ as well as religious values and principles in employee engagement in the hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates, embedded in the country’s socio-economic, cultural and institutional context. This study investigates employee engagement through the theoretical lenses of Positive Psychology and Positive Organizational Scholarship. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 41 employees in the case study hotel in Dubai, findings from this case study research show that the manifestation of EE is influenced by a country’s religious and socio-cultural context.

The Impact Of Accounting Automation On Efficiency, Madeline Corbett

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The accounting industry is predominantly composed of people producing financial reports, reconciling bank statements, ensuring that payroll is taken care of properly and promptly, as well as running audits both internally and externally, and administrative tasks. Automating this industry would mean that these tasks could be done without the need for much human intervention, thus reducing the number of accounting positions needed to continue operating. Larger corporations may be able to implement this automation, due to the vast resources that they have, but smaller businesses might have more trouble getting this done, due to the size of their organization. This …

Exploring The Relationship Between Load Shedding And Crime In Gauteng, Bhavesh Ram

Master's Theses

This study investigates the impact of load shedding, a recurring power outage phenomenon in South Africa, on crime rates in the densely populated Gauteng province. Using a novel dataset that combines Eskom's load shedding schedules with detailed crime statistics from 2015 to 2022, a fixed-effects regression model is employed to examine the relationship between blackout hours and various crime categories. Findings reveal that while load shedding does not significantly affect overall crime rates, it significantly increases the incidence of contact crimes and sexual offenses, particularly during daylight hours. Additionally, our results provide evidence that load shedding diminishes the ability of …

Enhancing Ethical Leadership: The Impact Of Governance Mechanisms On Nonprofit Organizations, Norma Guerrero

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research is dedicated to uncovering the complex connections between ethics and effective governance within nonprofit organizations. The study focuses on identifying factors that influence ethical behavior, addressing ethical challenges specific to the nonprofit sector, and developing strategies to encourage ethical practices within these entities. By integrating literature reviews, case studies, and expert interviews, the research underscores the vital link between ethical decision-making and organizational efficiency, as well as public trust. The study aims to enrich the ongoing discourse on nonprofit governance, providing key insights and actionable recommendations for board members, executives, professionals, volunteers, and scholars to strengthen governance and …

Formalized Succession Planning: A Need In East Tennessee Health Departments, Elizabeth A. Maples

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Gaps in employment competencies can hinder the government from serving the public and the community. The lack of succession planning and the turnover of employees can cause unnecessary strain and unstable situations within an organization. This problem can lead to decreased productivity. Undefined criteria for potential candidates remain an issue of succession planning because leaders have no best way to compare or evaluate applicants. With a growing need to fill jobs, employers complain about a lack of qualified workers. While research included the importance of succession planning, this study will include the need for a formalized succession planning process with …

The Impact Of A Project Management Approach On Micro-Businesses In Achieving Strategic Goals, Karen M. Lowe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This flexible case study delves into the challenges micro-businesses in Ontario face, where the informal nature of operations and unique goal-setting processes are seen as obstacles to achieving strategic goals. Despite project management being proven to improve business success, many micro-businesses do not engage in formal processes. The research, employing a flexible case study methodology involving 15 micro-business founders in Ontario, explores the approaches used, differences in outcomes when goals are achieved versus not, and the role of project management in mitigating potential business failure. Analysis reveals five key themes, including lack of defined strategic goals, the unintentional use of …

Designing Future Agriculture: Design For Complex Systems And Cross-Cultural Interactions, Karina Madzari

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Climate change is now recognized by businesses as a major challenge, prompting the agribusiness sector to transform to meet sustainability goals. However, there are many ways to achieve sustainability. Precision agriculture and agroecology are two concepts that evolved from conventional and regenerative approaches respectively, and offer distinct perspectives on sustainability attainment. Precision agriculture relies on technological solutions like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, gene editing, and carbon dioxide removal technologies (CDR) and aims to revolutionize industry operations through automatization. Agroecology, on the other hand, creates a symbiotic relationship between farming practices and ecosystem services. It aims to replace non-renewable resources with …

Improving Healthcare Workers’ Biohazardous Spill Safe Handling Skills, Zeina Mhanna, Ahmad Tassi

BAU Journal - Health and Wellbeing

All healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to biohazardous material. Biohazardous material may come in the form of spills, posing a risk of infection to (HCWs) who are not trained on how to safely handle them. While international guidelines recommend training HCWs on how to safely handle biohazardous spills in order to improve their skills, there are no studies that tackled this recommendation. The aim of this study is to improve HCWs’ biohazardous spill safe handling skills through training, and to evaluate the association between the HCWs’ improvement level and demographical characteristics. The study was conducted in a Southern Lebanese hospital …

Strategy In Action: The Creation Of The Codex, Joshua Lucas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis provides the foundation of a larger project, namely the Strategy Unlocked Codex. It is my task to provide sufficient content for ten strategic theories to assist the public at large by enhancing their understanding of business strategy and discovering applications in their professional situations. The ten theories have been researched, analyzed, and explained both in print and by film. Videos, both short and long, as well as integrated graphics have been developed to further demonstrate theory understanding. The result is a format that can be replicated for others to use in the population of the Strategy Unlocked Codex. …

How Incentives Help Us Do Hard Things First, Patrick Matthew Healey

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

When facing tasks of differing difficulty, do people choose to tackle harder ones first or easier ones first? I show that the answer depends on how motivated they are to complete all of the tasks. I examine situations in which people must complete both a harder task and an easier one by the same deadline. When I incentivize people for completing both tasks by that deadline, they are more apt to complete the harder task before the easier task, compared to when they are not incentivized. This change results from two factors. First, the incentive leads people to care more …

A Flavorful Adventure: Interning At Old Dutch Foods, Ashton Olson, Jonathan Ibisch, Jeff Port

Science Symposium

This is an internship in which I worked at Old Dutch Foods for a summer working as a lab technician. I performed many daily tasks as well as larger projects for just my boss as a form of "research" and data analytics. I learned many things about lab etiquette and analysis, professionalism, as well as workplace communication.

Professional Learning Communities During The Pandemic, Elizabeth Nichols

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

In 2019 the world experienced a medical emergency that impacted education across the world. Several states in the United States had professional learning communities introduced into their schools as a means to enhance academic achievement prior to COVID 19. In order to show support to the schools and increase student achievement, a state introduced a specific professional learning community (PLC) model to be followed as a guideline to improvement and sustainability during a crisis. This study compares the state specific PLC model schools to schools who did not follow the state specific PLC model to examine the statistically significant difference …

Unified In Christ, David Morris

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Statement of the Question/Problem

The United Methodist Church is facing a season of incredible struggle. The modern American United Methodist Church is facing a crisis of Division during this season of disaffiliation and restructuring. Division within church is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it is not new in the Methodist tradition. This repeating cycle of denominational fracture begs the question, “why does division in the church happen, and how can we avoid it in the future?” Currently the United Methodist Church is dividing supposedly over the issue of human sexuality. I would argue these divisions do not solely rely …

Small Business Recovery And Innovation After The Covid-19 Crisis: Moderated Mediation Involving Leadership Styles And Leader Data Usage, Jalal Maqableh

Dissertations, 2020-current

The small business sector is considered the backbone of the US economy. It is the largest source of new jobs and the main factor in stimulating economic growth. This study was performed to help provide a better understanding of the small business sector's performance during the COVID-19 crisis. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of crisis leadership and entrepreneurial leadership styles in the US small business sector during crisis times, and whether these styles would affect recovery and innovation. The retrospective, cross-sectional design of this study consisted of three phases, Pre-COVID, During-COVID, and Post-COVID. Each of …

The Santa Clara, 2024-05-10, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

A Collection Of Case Studies On Financial Accounting Themes, Colton Jones

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of accounting case themes. There are eight cases that comprise this thesis including: Operational Risk Assessment, ESG and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment, Audit Risk and Planning, Tax Planning, Famous Economist, Liquidity Crisis, Financial Crisis, and Excel Fundamentals – Formulas for Finance. There is an immense variety of topics presented and studies throughout this compilation. All have given me an immeasurable learning experience. Case I through Case IV contend with the Case Competition that spread throughout the entire Fall semester. The company that these cases focus on is Chuy’s Holding Incorporated.

Imperative Issues Pertaining To The Accounting World, Tessa Willow Crosby

Honors Theses

This paper focuses on current issues surrounding the accounting industry. The company called 3D System’s Corporation is used to point out different issues in accounting. These issues include carbon sequestration, tax cuts, and liabilities to shareholders. By diving into the world of accounting, this paper peels back the curtain to show how corporations operate financially.

Financial Assessment Of Executive Decision-Making And Risk Management: A Case Study Of Autozone, Carolina Hollis

Honors Theses

This area of investigation pertains to the business organizational structure, executive summary, and risk management decisions of AutoZone within the 2022-2023 fiscal year. This analysis was performed by examining previous financial records, the yearly 10-K report, and various research databases regarding the financial performance of retail auto part companies. Many different sources were used to gather information about AutoZone. AutoZone has an intricate financial system that maintains the going concern by addressing current issues within the financial world to combat problems they could face in the future. These risk factors include inflation, interest rates, energy prices, political climates, and supply …

A Collection Of Accounting Case Studies, Julie Mabrey

Honors Theses

This thesis comprises six accounting case studies investigating accounting practices and other broader financial narratives. Dr. Dickinson assigned and advised the case studies throughout the course of Honors Accountancy 420. During the fall semester, Dr. Dickinson placed us in groups to research assigned companies and how they apply accounting principles. My group was given Commercial Metals Company (CMC), and we investigated their operations, ESG and cybersecurity, audit risks, and tax efficiency. At the end of the semester, we presented our findings to accounting professionals from across the country. The professionals provided insight into our research and helped critique our work. …

Financial Accounting Case Studies, Porter May

Honors Theses

In this thesis, a series of case studies are presented, which were undertaken as part of the ACCY 420 course during the 2022-2023 academic year. The cases encompass a diverse range of subjects, including but not limited to Environmental Social Governance (ESG), audit risks, and tax planning strategies. Additionally, contemporary events such as the downfall of Silicon Valley Bank and the financial market crisis of 2008 were scrutinized. The studies involved both individual and collaborative efforts to gather substantial evidence. The first five cases concentrate on the analysis of Flowers Foods and its financial standing. A team of five students, …

Financial Accounting Case Studies, John Montgomery

Honors Theses

This thesis presents a compilation of case studies undertaken during the ACCY 420 course in the 2022-2023 academic year. These studies encompass a wide array of topics, including operational risk assessment, environmental social governance (ESG), audit risks, and tax planning, with a specific focus on 3D Systems Corporation. Alongside, they analyze recent events such as the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and the more former Financial Crisis of 2008. These studies aimed to gather substantial evidence and conceptually help us to understand our specific company. The first five cases delve into the financials of 3D Systems Corporation. A team …