Digital Commons Network^™

Blockchain Technology As A Tool To Enhance Information Security Elements In The Government Organizations Sector: An Exploratory Study In The Nineveh Governorate Traffic Directorate, Saif Khalid Zakaria

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

Purpose: The objective of this study is oriented to investigate what are the determinant features of Blockchain Technology (BCT) that contribute in boosting ISE factors in governmental institutions. The research work is grounded on referring to the most popular features of Blockchain (BC) in enhancing the core and supportive (ISE). Research Design/ Methods and approach: The data for this research was based on a crosssectional and correlational survey (95 responses were finally analyzed). The collected data were first analyzed using SPSS v.26 and then through variance based structural equation modeling (SEM; Smart PLS v.4) for assessing validity and …

Enhancing Introductory Cybersecurity Learning: A Design-Based Research Case Study, Manny Niri Dr.

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

This study employs a design-based research (DBR) framework to examine the impact of a comprehensive curriculum redesign in an introductory Foundations of Security module for undergraduate students in computing and cybersecurity at a UK public university between 2019 and 2025. The redesign aimed to enhance student learning, engagement, and critical thinking through the embodiment of evidence-based pedagogical strategies, including flipped classroom delivery, blended learning, gamified practical exercises, repeated low-stakes mock assessments, and structured problem-solving activities. Student feedback, assessment outcomes, attendance records, and faculty reflections were analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of the redesign. The results indicate substantial improvements in student …

Strategic Planning Time Horizons And Hospital Performance Outcomes, David Meyer

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Background: Despite widespread adoption of strategic planning in healthcare, empirical evidence linking strategic planning time horizons to hospital financial and quality performance outcomes remains limited. Healthcare executives invest substantial resources in strategic planning processes, yet lack evidence-based guidance on whether longer or shorter planning horizons yield enhanced financial and quality-related results.

Methods: This study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design combining executive survey data with archival performance data. A REDCap survey was administered to 22 hospital CEOs, CFOs, and other C-suite executives between January and February 2026. Survey responses were matched to publicly available financial and quality performance data from …

2026-03-26 Faculty Senate Newsletter, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Faculty Senate newsletter from March 26, 2026.

Fierce Leadership-Perspectives Of Black Women Educational Leaders: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study, Janice Taylor, Dianne Reed

Tapestry: Journal of Research in Education

The authors of this transcendental phenomenological study aimed to describe the lived experiences of Black women based on their perceptions, values, and beliefs about the complexities of leadership and the kind of leadership required to succeed in their respective roles, as educational leaders. This study was framed by the adaptive leadership theory. Adaptive leadership recognizes the need for leaders to stay flexible and resilient in fast-paced environments (Nelson & Squires, 2017). The three Black women leaders in this study were fierce adaptive leaders. The information acquired from this study is significant and highlights how Black women educational leaders developed the …

The Writing On The Wall: The Rise Of Applied Ai And The Life-Or-Death Choice Every Ceo Must Make Now, Gary Sheng, Ron Roberts

Digital Laboratory: Publisher of Internet Journal

Applied AI is putting AI to its highest and best use: running your organization as autonomously as possible so you can deliver value for humanity while maximizing the scale of the value. The economy is splitting. Organizations that adopt applied AI are expanding their capacity, accelerating their impact, and pulling ahead. Those that don't are quietly becoming irrelevant, not because they're doing bad work, but because the gap between what they can do and what the moment requires is widening every day. This is not a technology question. It is a leadership question. This paper is written for organizational leaders, …

Passive Institutional Ownership And The Informational Efficiency Of Stock Prices, Lihong Liang, Jingxin Hu

Accounting - All Scholarship

We examine how passive institutional ownership affects the informational efficiency of stock prices. Because passive institutional investors prefer greater transparency, their presence encourages managers to enhance firm disclosure (Boone & White, 2015; Schoenfeld, 2017). Increased disclosure improves the information environment and reduces information uncertainty, leading to lower post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) and greater price efficiency (Hung et al., 2015; Zhang, 2006). Accordingly, we predict that higher passive institutional ownership strengthens the contemporaneous market response to earnings announcements while mitigating PEAD. Using firm additions to the S&P 500 index as an exogenous shock, we document that increases in passive institutional ownership …

Key Elements Of Mission-Based Urban Agriculture In The United States Aimed At Addressing The Social Determinants Of Health, Jordan Losavio

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Urban agriculture (UA) in the United States (U.S.) is increasingly positioned as a multi-domain strategy for addressing social determinants of health (SDOH), yet evidence is fragmented and often focused on participant outcomes rather than the organizational and environmental conditions that determine whether those benefits can be sustained, expanded, or maintained over time. This dissertation uses an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to clarify (1) what SDOH outcomes are associated with UA in the peer-reviewed literature, (2) which internal and external factors leaders perceive as driving UA organizational success or failure, and (3) which factors predict comparative organizational functioning across a national …

Paws And Persuasion: How Dog Influencers Shape Hotel Booking Decisions, Wei Wei, Lu Zhang, Tianyu Ying, Yanyan Zheng

Rosen Research Review

The research by Wei, Zhang, Ying, and Zheng explores how pet influencers—specifically dog influencers on Instagram—impact hotel booking intentions. Through two experiments, the study reveals that message appeal (rational vs. emotional) interacts with audience characteristics like prior experience and perceived attractiveness of the pet influencer. Rational messages are more persuasive for less experienced travelers and when the pet influencer is perceived as less attractive. Emotional messages, while engaging, are less effective in these contexts. This research uncovers the nuanced power of pet influencer marketing and offers practical strategies for hospitality marketers seeking to tap into the booming “cute economy” of …

Students Represent Lindenwood At State Leadership Forum, Lindenwood University

Archived Lindenwood Press Releases

No abstract provided.

Governing Bme Amplification In Large Language Models: A Standards-Aligned Framework For Llm Data Lifecycle Risk Detection And Ethical Ai Governance, Dale A. Rutherford

Theses and Dissertations

Large Language Models (LLMs) now underpin critical systems in education, healthcare, and policy advisory contexts, yet remain susceptible to the recursive amplification of bias, misinformation, and error (BME). These distortions, driven by feedback loops between user interactions, model retraining, and data reuse, accelerate epistemic drift and erode information quality over time. This dissertation advances a comprehensive governance architecture to detect, quantify, and mitigate these risks across the full AI lifecycle. The research introduces the BME Metric Suite, a standards-aligned diagnostic framework comprising five original metrics: Bias Amplification Rate (BAR), Echo Chamber Propagation Index (ECPI), Information Quality Decay (IQD), Pretraining Diversity …

Evaluating Marketing Decision Systems Under Experimental Constraints, Vatsal Modi

AMTP Proceedings 2026

Marketing organizations increasingly rely on algorithmic decision systems to guide targeting, budget allocation, and personalization. While these systems are widely deployed, evaluating their incremental impact remains challenging when traditional experimentation approaches, such as geo-based or large-scale randomized tests, are infeasible due to operational, regulatory, or interference constraints. This study examines how marketing decision systems can be rigorously evaluated under such conditions. Drawing on recent advances in causal inference and marketing analytics, we develop a decision-centric evaluation framework that integrates synthetic control methods, quasi-experimental designs, and incrementality diagnostics to approximate counterfactual performance. The framework emphasizes methodological transparency, robustness checks, and practical …

The Transformative Essence Of Liminality: Pilgrimage And The Example Of St. Francis Of Assisi, John Kruse

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Looking at the life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181/2–1226) through the lens of liminality can help to understand this complex figure. Anthropologist Victor Turner, for example, has explored Francis’s embrace of poverty as a means of experiencing liminality and the communitas that accompanies it. Three episodes in the life of Francis in particular constitute liminal experiences in that Francis left behind old ways of being, crossed thresholds, and experienced transformation: his encounter with lepers, his renunciation of possessions and coinciding embrace of poverty, and his encounter with Sultan Malik al-Kamil. Understanding these episodes as liminal experiences not only helps …

Understanding The Rising Popularity Of (Un)Religious Pilgrims: Belonging Without Believing, Gregory Smith

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

While researchers are in agreement about the positive relationship between spiritual activities (SAs) and mental health (MH) among the general population, the relationship between spiritual tourism (ST) and MH, particularly among young adults, is yet to be adequately investigated. As such, important questions regarding the status of religion in the contemporary world can be addressed through the study of current pilgrimage trends. A ‘pilgrimage boom’ is occurring in Britain and other parts of the global anglosphere (Williams, 2020 & O’Keeffe, 2022). Yet, many of these modern pilgrims do not identify with established religious categories (i.e., Christianity). Significant gaps in our …

Mundane Or Mystical: Journeying From An Islamic Perspective, Abu Bakr Sirajuddin Cook

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Within Islam generally, and Sufism in particular, journeying (safar) takes on a great importance. From the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) to the vertical night journey (almiraj), the well-trodden path (shari’ah) to the narrow path (tariqa), there are many kinds of journeying, all of which are ultimately understood as being in the path of Allah (fi sabillillah). Common to all types of journeying is an engagement with Allah’s signs (ayat) ‘on the horizons and within themselves’ so that, correctly understood, this will support the realisation of Truth (Qur’an 41: 53). For …

The Journey Of The Soul In Aboriginal Australia, Ian S. Mcintosh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

For the past decade, I have been studying pilgrimage in all its dimensions in what my colleagues and I have been calling a kaleidoscopic inquiry (McIntosh et al., 2024). In my current investigations, I have been exploring the journey of the soul upon the death of its host. My focus in this working paper is the myths and traditions of the Yolngu Indigenous peoples of northeast Arnhemland in remote northern Australia with whom I lived and worked in the 1980s and 90s. The Yolngu go to great lengths to prepare the dying for their ultimate journey, painting the body with …

Pandemic Challenges: Resource-Based Strategies In The Black Belt Region, Valencia D. Winston

College of Business

From 2019 to 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected rural small businesses in Alabama and Mississippi's Black Belt Region. Rural communities in the Black Belt face a number of significant economic and structural barriers, such as historic lending inequities, generational poverty, and a lack of access to capital and mentorship, compounded by unreliable broadband and fiber optic connectivity. This study utilizes the resource-based view (RBV) to explore how businesses leverage their assets for success. The research has three main objectives: to determine if the distribution of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan was equitable across demographics, to investigate whether demographic …

Optimising Human–Ai Decision Performance: A Trust And Capability Framework For Knowledge Management, Eduardo Carlos Dittmar, Martin Sposato

All Works

Organisations struggle to optimise human–AI collaboration in knowledge-intensive decision-making. This paper proposes the Trust–Complementarity Model of Collective Intelligence (TCM-CI), explaining how calibrated trust and complementary capability utilisation drive superior organisational performance. Through systematic synthesis of human–AI interaction and knowledge management research, we identify three core mechanisms: (1) calibrated trust maximises collective intelligence by balancing appropriate reliance with necessary oversight, (2) complementarity–trust interaction determines optimal performance when high capability utilisation combines with appropriate trust levels and (3) dynamic feedback loops create reinforcing organisational learning cycles. The framework provides practical guidance for executives designing human–AI teams, developing trust calibration training, and establishing …

Predicting House Prices Using Machine Learning, Pejal Rath, Robert Slater

SMU Data Science Review

This study explores the use of Machine Learning methods to predict housing prices, a problem of significant interest in real estate economics, and data science. Traditional hedonic pricing models have long been used to evaluate the impact of housing attributes on property values, but they often lack the flexibility to capture nonlinear relationships and complex feature interactions. Recent advancements in regression based and Machine Learning approaches provide promising alternatives that may improve prediction of accuracy and market insights. This research will investigate how models such as linear regression, random forest, and gradient boosting can be applied to publicly available housing …

Application Of Open-Source Small Large Language Models For Finance Report Analysis, Tue Vu, Mark Austin, Marcel Tuijn

SMU Data Science Review

The rapid integration of generative AI in finance introduces both opportunities and challenges, particularly when analyzing sensitive data such as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. This study investigates the use of open-source Small Large Language Models (SLLMs), deployed locally through the Ollama and LangChain frameworks, combined with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for extracting financial insights relevant to index performance and reporting quality. Two key objectives guide this work: (1) benchmarking multiple open-source SLLMs for sentiment analysis, multiple-choice reasoning, and financial question answering, and (2) assessing the feasibility of locally deployed SLLMs for domain-specific financial queries. A standardized set of 50 …

The Causes And Effects Of Toxic Leadership In Organizations, Patton Flannery

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Toxic leadership in organizations can negatively affect employee well-being, productivity, performance, motivation, and potentially the organization’s brand reputation. This flexible qualitative study, utilizing multiple case studies, explored the causes and effects of toxic leadership within the DJ Construction Company to identify how abusive supervision, emotional strain, dysfunctional leadership behaviors, and employee coping mechanisms collectively affect employees and the organization. This study employed semi-structured interviews with 25 participants and surveys completed by 31 participants representing diverse roles within the company. Data were analyzed using thematic coding, frequency counts, and cross-theme comparison to gain a better understanding of both the frequency and …

2026-03-10 University Graduate Committee - Minor Curriculum Proposal - M.A. In Counseling, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate., University Graduate Committee.

Faculty Senate Records

Minor curriculum change proposal for M.A. in Counseling: School Counseling Concentration as submitted to the University Graduate Committee on February 4, 2026 and approved on March 10, 2026.

2026-03-10 University Graduate Committee - Minor Curriculum Change Proposal - M.A. In Counseling, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate., University Graduate Committee.

Faculty Senate Records

Minor curriculum change proposal for M.A. in Counseling: Counseling Concentration as submitted to the University Graduate Committee on February 4, 2026 and approved on March 10, 2026.

2026-03-10 University Graduate Committee - Course Proposal For Soc 631, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate., University Graduate Committee.

Faculty Senate Records

Course proposal for SOC 631 Health Structures and Behavior submitted to the University Graduate Committee on February 6, 2026 and approved on March 10, 2026.

Insights From Ai Tutors In Undergraduate And Graduate Engineering Courses, Billy Kihei, Sheila Hill, Sumit Chakravarty

Proceedings of the Cognitive Innovation Conference (CognoCon)

As large language models become broadly accessible, questions about how to integrate them productively into engineering education have moved from speculative to urgent. This paper presents the design rationale and early deployment experience of 247officehours.com, a faculty-created, faculty-managed platform that grounds AI tutoring in instructor-selected course materials and connects it to assessment, engagement tracking, and targeted instructional intervention. Drawing on deployment across undergraduate and graduate engineering courses, we describe six core platform features, analyze how student interactions map onto Bloom's revised taxonomy, and identify recurring patterns of productive and unproductive AI use. A tutor–tutee inversion activity, in which students must …

Candidate Generative Ai Use In Pre‐Hire Employment Assessments: Self‐Reported Incidence And The Impact Of Warnings, Chet Robie, Timothy G. Wingate, Nataliya Baytalskaya, Hilary Butera

Business Faculty Publications

The rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) poses new challenges for the validity and fairness of pre‐hire employment assessments. Across two applied studies using large applicant samples completing a standardized pre‐hire assessment (which includes both cognitive and non‐cognitive components), we examined the self‐reported incidence of GenAI assistance, and the impact of warning statements designed to deter such behavior. In Study 1 (N = 5675), conducted in Q3 2024, fewer than 3% of applicants reported using GenAI, though up to 19% reported using GenAI in combination with algorithmic resources (e.g., search engines). All three warning statements (consequences, educational, and reasoning) …

Human-Ai Collaboration In Marketing Brainstorming: A Meta-Analytic Investigation Of Implementation Approaches And Creative Outcomes, Michael Michaels

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marketing organizations face intensifying pressure to sustain creative output while managing constrained resources and accelerating digital content cycles. The integration of artificial intelligence into marketing brainstorming processes presents a promising response to this challenge; however, prior to this investigation, no comprehensive quantitative synthesis had established the overall effectiveness of human-AI collaboration in marketing creativity contexts or identified optimal implementation strategies.

This dissertation presents a systematic meta-analytic investigation of AI-enhanced brainstorming effectiveness in marketing contexts. Following PRISMA guidelines, 42 independent empirical studies (N = 2,166 participants) published between 2018 and 2025 were identified across four primary academic databases, coded for implementation …

Analysis Of Student Satisfaction With The Ppg Student Registration Process At Universitas Negeri Malang Using The Servqual And Delone & Mclean Models, Dedi Prestiadi, Darmawan Satyananda, Dedi Tiarno

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

This study aims to analyze student satisfaction levels with the Teacher Professional Education (PPG) registration system at Universitas Negeri Malang using an integration of the SERVQUAL and DeLone & McLean models, as well as to develop a strategy for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) using Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. This study uses a descriptive quantitative approach with 10,701 student respondents from three registration stages (BGT 1, Kemenag, and BGT 2). The data collection instrument is a 1–5 Likert questionnaire covering three main aspects: requirements, process, and registration application. Data analysis was conducted through validity and reliability tests, multiple linear regression, and Principal …

Workplace Diversity In A Diverse World: Why Inclusion And Ethics Matter, Julianna Cutcher

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

As global populations grow and evolve, diversity becomes an increasingly prominent and complex characteristic of society and the workplace. Diversity encompasses the vast array of individual differences and similarities among people, affecting how organizations operate and interact. In the United States, the diversity index rose to 61.1% in 2020, reflecting a significant demographic shift. However, promoting diversity alone is insufficient; effective management also requires attention to equity and inclusion. Organizations must foster ethical workplace cultures that support diverse perspectives through comprehensive training, employee development, and inclusive policies. By embracing a holistic approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), businesses can …

Knowledge-Management Collaboration And Labor Brokerage Performance: A Multilevel Study Of Entrepreneurial Market Making, James Downing

Economic and Business Review

Entrepreneurs operating in knowledge-intensive markets will seek to reduce costs with tacit-knowledge-management mechanisms. When seeking a competitive advantage in knowledge-intensive industries, individuals will create value from general market information and engineer the transaction cost for clients. These market-making individuals will operate within a firm to gain benefits from information-sharing collaboration. Firms will make investments in tacit-information sharing to assist individual collaboration, resulting in increased firm performance. The value creation process for knowledge-intensive markets is crafted from general market information. The value appropriation process is unique to knowledge-intensive industries with the engineering of a client’s transaction costs as a competitive advantage. …