Digital Commons Network^™

Internal Quality Enhancement: Case Of A Uae Business School, Valentine Matthews

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

This paper presents a case study of a quality enhancement process of a small business school in the United Arab Emirates. The research explores this specific quality enhancement process with a focus on why it is implemented by the case institution and how it achieves quality improvement. The case quality enhancement process is an internal institutional approach that deviates from the Scottish Enhancement-Led Institutional Review approach. Articulation of the process is conducted from policy and practice. The articulation provides deeper and clearer understanding of the approach to quality enhancement, how it achieves quality improvements, and the leadership’s justifications for adopting …

Vertical Price Transmission In The Philippine Rice Supply Chain: Responses To Shocks In The Post-Tariffication Period, Bates Bathan

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

In the post-Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) period, several protectionist policies and state interventions have reemerged in the Philippine rice market. Using national-level time series data from January 2018 to April 2025, the study applies autoregressive distributed lag models to assess the impact of policy changes and external shocks on unmilled rice (palay) and rice prices. Results show that National Food Authority (NFA) rice stocks significantly affect palay farmgate prices and special rice retail prices. Vertical price transmission flows from farmgate to wholesale levels for special rice, and from wholesale to retail levels for well-milled and regular-milled rice. Major …

To Swear Or Not To Swear: Exploring The Role Of Profanity In Influencer Marketing, Mahdi Niknejad Moghadam, Vijay Mahajan

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Influencers play a central role in promoting products and services on digital platforms. Understanding the impact of their linguistic choices, including the use of profanity, is therefore important for marketers seeking to engage target audiences. This study investigates how influencers’ profanity usage shapes user engagement. The authors analyze videos shared by influencers on a popular video-sharing platform and extract auditory, visual, and verbal features using a range of machinelearning tools. The findings indicate that profanity in focal content is associated with lower engagement, with a substantially larger effect in categories where profanity is less normatively expected. This negative effect is …

Deep Learning Approaches For Anti-Money Laundering On Mobile Transactions: Review, Framework, And Directions, Jiani Fan, Lwin Khin Shar, Ruichen Zhang, Ziyao Liu, Wenzhuo Yang, Dusit Niyato, Kwok-Yan Lam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Money laundering is a financial crime that obscures the origin of illicit funds, necessitating the development and enforcement of anti-money laundering (AML) policies by governments and organizations. The proliferation of mobile payment platforms and smart IoT devices has significantly complicated AML investigations. As payment networks become more interconnected, there is an increasing need for efficient real-time detection to process large volumes of transaction data on heterogeneous payment systems by different operators such as digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, and account-based payments. Most of these mobile payment networks are supported by connected devices, many of which are considered loT devices in the FinTech …

Regulatory Cost Of Production In Napa County Vineyards, Lynn Hamilton, Michael Mccullough

Agribusiness

Regulatory costs are an increasing concern for California growers. Recent studies in Salinas Valley lettuce and San Joaquin Valley fruit, vegetable and row crops show that regulatory costs are growing at a much faster rate than costs of production. Napa County Farm Bureau contacted Cal Poly to conduct a case study of regulations accruing to Napa Valley vineyards. We interviewed one large (1000-acre) and one small (200-acre) vineyard in 2025 and documented the costs of complying with regulations in the following categories:

• Education and Training for Regulatory Compliance
• Air Quality
• Water Quality
• Surface and Groundwater Regulations …

What Are We Learning About The Research-Practice Gap From Hrd Scholars And Hrd Scholar-Practitioners?, Kelly Moore, Yonjoo Cho

Human Resource Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

The research-practice gap (the gap) in HRD remains a significant challenge, hindering the application of academic research to practice and the integration of workplace challenges into research efforts. It is critical for HRD research to address the gap to develop evidence-based solutions for learning and organizational performance. The purpose of this study was to explore how HRD scholars and scholar-practitioners define, motivate, address barriers to, and recommend strategies for bridging the gap in HRD. Building on the study by Moore and Cho (2024) from the perspective of HRD practitioners, we investigated the perspectives of HRD scholars and scholar-practitioners to examine …

Organizational Characteristics And Business Transformation: An Investigation On Corporate Transformation In The Construction Industry, Wei Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Draw on a structural decline in demand triggered by selective real estate industrial policies, this study explores how construction companies drive business transformation through organizational characteristics in environmental uncertainties. Extant research has largely focused on the independent impact of single organizational factors or capabilities on transformation, lacking a systematic exploration of the interactions between organizational characteristics and the external environment. Take a typical construction group as an example, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach, through interviews and questionnaires, to systematically examine the impact of organizational characteristics on business transformation. The key findings are: in environmental uncertainties, an organic organizational structure …

Program Management And Building Partner Capacity: A Tangled Thicket, Phil W. Reynolds

Publications

This chapter explores how the U.S. Department of Defense plans and executes Building Partner Capacity projects in lower-middle and low-income partners. U.S. planners and practitioners rarely understand the effective pre-conditions that influence partner security apparatus and infrastructure. Consequently, security capabilities provided to the partner are rarely sustained and provide questionable security to the affected population. The U.S. Department of Defense uses a three-part approach to building security with partners: training and equipping, building institutional capacity, and monitoring and evaluating. U.S. security planners should manage all three parts concurrently to produce a security capability that the partner uses and sustains and …

Enterprise Digital Transformation: An Analysis Of Value Creation From An Operational Perspective, Weiguo Ling

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Digital transformation has become a critical pathway for the manufacturing sector to break through growth bottlenecks and reshape its core competitiveness. However, in practice, a large number of enterprises are trapped in the transformation paradox of a “discrepancy between perceived consensus and actual outcomes”. The core issue lies in the fact that traditional investment evaluation methods struggle to effectively measure the multi-dimensional value created by digitalization. From the perspective of operational management, this study focuses on the mechanisms and evaluation methods of digital value creation in different manufacturing contexts. A four-dimensional Value Evaluation Framework is proposed, comprise of Value Identification, …

Governance-By-Support: Non-Financial Incentive, Agency Costs, And Performance In Overseas Projects, Jixiang Lyu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As the Belt and Road Initiative continues to advance, multinational corporations from emerging economies have become increasingly reliant on expatriates to oversee overseas project execution, facilitate technology transfer, and manage on-site coordination. However, in contexts characterized by financial constraints, information opacity, and significant geographic and cultural distance, traditional Western models of expatriate management, which emphasize high compensation and tight monitoring, often prove difficult to sustain in practice. In reality, some firms are able to maintain high levels of expatriate commitment and stable overseas project performance even when expatriate compensation is below market levels. This seemingly anomalous phenomenon poses an interesting …

How Product Innovation And Process Innovation Impact Product Performance, Wei Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In an increasingly competitive global market characterized by accelerating technological iteration and rapidly evolving consumer demands, innovation has become a critical means for firms to adapt to dynamic changes and achieve competitive advantage. Grounded in dynamic capabilities theory and the resource-based view, this study empirically investigates the mechanisms through which product innovation and process innovation affect product performance, drawing on survey data from 215 products. It further examines the mediating role of product flexibility and the moderating effect of product positioning. The results indicate that both product innovation and process innovation have a significant positive impact on product performance. Product …

Financial Leverage And Firm Performance: An Empirical Review And Analysis, Iqbal Md. M Islam

Journal of Global Business Insights

This paper examines the dual impact of financial leverage on corporate performance by analyzing empirical data across developed and developing nations, industries, and different periods. Leverage can enhance profitability through tax benefits and improved efficiency, but it also maximizes financial risk, making its effects highly context dependent. Theoretical frameworks such as the Trade-off Theory, Modigliani-Miller Theorem, Agency Theory, and Pecking Order Theory offer diverse perspectives on how debt influences firm outcomes. Empirical findings reveal mixed results; moderate leverage may lower capital costs and boost performance, whereas unnecessary debt can lead to financial distress. Disparities emerge between developed and developing economies. …

Artificial Intelligence Capabilities, Generational Involvement, And Competitive Performance: Case Of Tunisian Family Businesses, Rim Gafsi

Journal of Global Business Insights

Anchored in Dynamic Capabilities Theory, this study examines the effect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities on the competitive performance of family firms and the moderating role of generational involvement. Using survey data from 120 Tunisian family firms adopting AI between 2021 and 2024 and applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, the findings show that AI capabilities significantly enhance firm performance, while generational involvement has no moderating effect. This challenges the assumption that intergenerational transitions inherently drive innovation and provides novel evidence from Tunisia that performance gains stem primarily from the strategic integration of AI rather than generational dynamics. …

A Closer Look At The Innovator: The Interplay Between Divergent And Convergent Processes Of Self-Regulation, Ronald Bledow, Hye Jung Eun, Lien Vossaert

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Creativity and innovation are essential for modern organizations. While abundant research has helped to better understand creativity in everyday work life, considerably less attention has been paid to how individuals achieve creative performance during the implementation of innovation projects. We articulate a dialectical interplay between divergent and convergent processes of self-regulation that supports creative performance in innovation projects. We propose that a divergent exploration orientation contributes to creative performance by inducing a broad search for novelty and by stimulating iteration—repeated cycles of experimentation and refinement. Convergent processes of self-regulation—outcome focus and planning—strengthen the relationship between divergent processes and creative performance. …

Global Value Chains And Economic Inequality, Vivek Soundararajan, Ari Van Assche, Hari Bapuji, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In their inaugural editorial, Van Assche and De Marchi (2024) argued that meaningful progress in international business policy requires a more fine-grained understanding of how private international business practices intersect with public policy objectives. This editorial builds on that insight by applying it to a critical yet still underexplored issue – one on which we hope to see more research in this journal: the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and global value chains (GVCs) in shaping economic inequality within developing economies. Decisions related to sourcing, contracting, and GVC governance are inherently distributional rather than neutral, with important implications for how …

Collaborative Work Management Technologies And Managerial Intensity In U.S. Corporations: An Examination, Piyush Gulati, Arianna Marchetti, Phanish Puranam

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Do digital technologies reinforce managerial hierarchies or, instead, make them less relevant? We propose that the answer to this question depends on the nature of the technology: specifically, its relative impact on managers' capacity to supervise and on subordinates' need for supervision. Applying this framework to collaborative work management (CWM) technologies that facilitate real-time collaboration, communication, and task coordination, we predict that the adoption of such technologies should reduce managerial intensity and increase decentralization in organizations. To test this prediction, we use a difference-in-differences design on a novel data set built from over 26 million job listings (Lightcast) and over …

Why Foundations Begin Making Program-Related Investments: Evidence From Recent Adopters, Maoz (Michael) Brown

The Foundation Review

Why do foundations begin making program-related investments (PRIs)? This article answers that question by drawing on interviews with professionals at 36 U.S. foundations that recently began implementing PRIs.

While achieving positive impact is a central motivating factor, the study reveals it is uncommon for new PRI-makers to target impact uniquely tailored to PRIs, e.g., establishing a credit history for the recipient. Operational benefits, e.g., stretching the foundation’s financial resources, are more salient in the decision to undertake PRIs, even though such benefits are often marginal.

This article also highlights a previously underexplored but apparently significant driver of PRI adoption: the …

Defining Community Philanthropy: Principles And Dimensions Of A Transformative Practice, Michael D. Layton

The Foundation Review

Community philanthropy is increasingly promoted as an alternative to institutional, top-down philanthropy, yet the term remains contested. In the Global North, it is typically associated with community foundations, while in the Global South the emphasis is on community itself.

This article offers a definition of community philanthropy as a practice rooted in context and power rather than a single institutional form. It identifies five transformative characteristics that distinguish community philanthropy from conventional giving and translates these principles into seven dimensions that can be used to identify and assess community philanthropy in practice.

For practitioners, evaluators, and funders, this framework offers …

Moving Beyond Words To Action: A Practitioner’S Playbook For Achieving Collaboration Success, Tessa Lesage, Jonathan L. Romine, Jane Wei Skillern

The Foundation Review

This article argues that foundations must shift from acting as grantmakers alone to becoming active stewards of cross-sector collaborative networks.

Drawing from more than two decades of field experience and research each, the authors outline a framework for moving from collaborative rhetoric to action, identifying four essential and interconnected actions: fueling trust, elevating purpose, nurturing networks, and strengthening stewardship.

Through case examples, the article illustrates how authentic, trust-based relationships, shared goals, and relational network leadership can drive scalable, sustainable impact.

The article offers both a compelling critique of traditional philanthropic approaches and a strategic road map for how foundations can …

Beyond The Check: Lessons In Trust, Support, And Structure For Flexible Well-Being Grants, Martena Reed, Jennifer Marsack, Chelsey Hurt, Gladys Hairston, Karla Mendez, Tejaswini Vemuganti, Valerie Stewart, Cindy Alvarado

The Foundation Review

This article draws on a developmental evaluation of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation’s Well-Being Grants, which awarded over 100 small, flexible grants to support nonprofit staff and organizational well-being. Using surveys, interviews, focus groups, and document review, authors examined how organizations defined well-being, how they used the funds, and what factors shaped their choices.

Findings show that, while grantees valued flexibility, many relied on familiar approaches such as retreats, stipends, and team building. Long-standing compliance norms engendered caution about experimentation, even when funders encouraged it.

The authors argue that funders must pair flexible dollars with …

Quality Of Human-Genai Collaboration And Its Driving Factors: A Symbiotic Agency Perspective, Jiayu Shang, Dan Huang, Songshan (Sam) Huang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly integrated into users’ daily work as a collaborative partner. Drawing on the symbiotic agency theory, this study investigates the quality of human-GenAI collaboration using a mixed-methods approach, including qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys. Study 1 identified three dimensions of human-GenAI collaboration quality that comprise outcome quality, comfort, and efficiency; and six driving factors which can be categorized under human agency (domain knowledge, desire for control, and domestication ability), and GenAI agency (communication ability, working memory, and long-term memory). Study 2 applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore configurations of the driving factors that lead …

A Multi-Dimensional Analysis Of Household Food Waste In The Republic Of Ireland: Drivers, Patterns, And Impacts, Courage Yaw Krah

Doctoral

Despite growing research on consumer food waste, existing efforts have fallen short of achieving meaningful reductions. This challenge has primarily been attributed to the complex behavioural and demographic diversity within populations, reflected in varying practices of food acquisition, storage, preparation, and disposal. In addition, there is a limited understanding of the broader impacts of discarded food, particularly the environmental, economic, and nutritional losses. This results in an oversimplified view of HFW and leads to less effective intervention strategies. An integrated assessment that incorporates environmental, nutritional, and economic consequences can provide a more holistic representation of the problem and support the …

Language Analysis Of "Gaslight" And "Narcissist" As Seen On Tiktok, Aaren Fernandez

Journal of Research Initiatives

TikTok is a popular social media platform from which users frequently obtain information. Specifically, psychological concepts such as anxiety, depression, and related conditions are becoming popular vernacular on TikTok through trends such as "story times." However, the accuracy of these terms' usage requires examination. In this qualitative analysis of TikTok posts and comments under the hashtags #gaslight and #narcissist, it was found that videos under these hashtags often originated from users attempting to warn viewers about psychological traits that align with common diagnostic language. However, comments under these videos tended to use these terms in a more casual sense than …

Advances In Culture, Tourism, And Hospitality Research: Volume 1, Cihan Cobanoglu, Hanqin Qiu, Jiaying Lyu, James H. W. Shen

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This is the first volume of the Advances in Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research Book Series.

Sectoral Shockwaves: Examining Bursa Malaysia's Sector Indices Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Alyssa April Dellow, Hafizah Bahaludin

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is becoming a widespread concern, as it is causing a decline in economies and negatively impacting stock markets worldwide. As the Malaysian government implements the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of the deadly virus, the Malaysian stock market is rapidly impacted, becoming volatile and unpredictable throughout the pandemic phase. Thus, this study aims to analyse the structural correlation patterns of the Bursa Malaysia Sectoral Index Series using the threshold network approach. The data utilised in this study are the closing prices of all 13 sectoral indexes, spanning from January 1, 2019, …

Gamification Strategies And Customer Churn Reduction In Entrepreneurial Retail Firms: An Empirical Study Of Millennials, Si Chong En, Oo Yu Hock, Nor Azila Mohd Noor, Zheng Feei Ma, Khairul Nizam Mahmud

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study investigates the impact of gamification strategies on customer churn reduction in entrepreneurial retail firms, focusing on Millennial consumers in Malaysia’s Klang Valley. Customer churn threatens profitability, particularly for emerging enterprises, and gamification has emerged as a potential tool to enhance customer engagement and retention. Drawing on the Self-Determination Theory, the study examines three gamified marketing interventions: membership programmes, contest rewards, and personalised discounts as direct predictors of churn reduction. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed, using a structured questionnaire distributed to 180 Millennial consumers through purposive sampling. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation …

Bridging The Intention-Implementation Divide In Generative Ai Adoption: An Integrated Model Of Psychological, Behavioral And Social Drivers, Mohamed Walid Mohamed Lotfy Abdallah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the gap between professionals’ intentions to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their actual adoption behavior in workplace settings. Although Generative AI offers substantial potential to improve efficiency and performance, concerns about control, misuse and organizational risk have led to inconsistencies between intended and enacted use. Motivated by this misalignment, the study investigates the psychological, behavioral and social mechanisms that shape the intention-implementation divide. Drawing on an integrated framework combining the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Technology Acceptance Model, alongside personality traits, the research conceptualizes adoption as a phase-specific process involving evaluative, motivational and volitional components. …

Building A Pathway Of Genai-Enabled Capabilities For Supply Chain Management, Mario Henrique Callefi, Elza Magalhães, Léony Luis Lopes Negrão, Matthias Thürer, Janaina Siegler, Ivan Tomašević, Moacir Godinho Filho

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into Supply Chain Management (SCM) has accelerated rapidly. However, limited understanding exists on how GenAI-enabled capabilities should be prioritised to create sustained value. Existing research predominantly describes applications but overlooks the hierarchical structure of underlying capabilities required for effective adoption. In response, this study develops a capability-oriented framework grounded in the Task Technology Fit (TTF) perspective. A Systematic Literature Review identified capabilities, which were refined via Fuzzy Delphi and structured using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) with Fuzzy MICMAC. The resulting framework was corroborated through secondary case analyses of DHL Supply Chain and Walmart, …

Strategies For Reducing Fraud In Corporate Organizations, Tarshall Horton Mccauley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Financial statement fraud has been a persistent problem that poses risks to corporations globally. Business leaders are concerned about financial statement fraud due to its potential to weaken financial stability, erode stakeholder confidence, and create conditions that may lead to significant financial distress or organizational collapse. Grounded in the fraud triangle theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry research was to explore internal control strategies corporate leaders use to reduce financial statement fraud risk. The participants were 11 financial leaders in North Carolina, the District of Columbia, and Virginia who practiced effective internal controls to minimize financial fraud. Data …

A Capability Maturity Model For Artificial Intelligence Integration In Supply Chain Management, Lordt Becklines

Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming Supply Chain Management (SCM), yet many organizations struggle to assess their readiness for AI adoption and to understand how AI capabilities develop across maturity stages. This dissertation addresses this gap by developing a Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for AI integration in SCM, grounded in Organizational Information Processing Theory (OIPT), the Resource-Based View, and related capability frameworks. The model provides a structured approach for evaluating an organization's information-processing requirements, resource configurations, and alignment needed for effective AI-enabled supply chain operations.

Using a design science research approach, the AI-SCM CMM and its associated assessment instrument were derived …