Digital Commons Network^™

Psychometric Properties Of The Digital Psychological Competence Scale For University Students In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Mona Saad Falih Alamri

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

Higher education has undergone a rapid digital transformation, requiring students to navigate technology-rich learning environments that demand integrated cognitive and psychological competencies. This study aimed to develop and validate a Psychodigital Competence Scale for university students in the western region of Saudi Arabia, using a sample of 523 students. The initial version included 21 items, which were revised through expert judgment (agreement >= 80%) to produce a final 16-item, four-factor scale. Construct validity was assessed using a pilot sample, and Pearson correlations demonstrated statistically significant item-scale relationships at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels. Reliability indicators showed significant split-half reliability (p < 0.01) and a high Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.908). Exploratory factor analysis supported data suitability (KMO = 0.85, Bartlett's test p < 0.01, determinant = 0.011), and confirmatory factor analysis validated the four-factor model. These findings confirm strong psychometric properties, establishing the scale as a reliable tool for psychological and educational research.

The Global Onboard Training Programme (Gobt) : A Comprehensive Review, World Maritime University

Reports

A stable supply of qualified seafarers is a critical component of the global maritime logistics industry, which relies heavily on maritime transportation. According to the 2021 BIMCO Manpower Report, an additional 89,510 officers will be needed by 2026. In 2021 alone, there was already a deficit of 26,240 STCW-certified officers, clearly indicating that demand continues to outpace supply. The report also noted a 45.8% increase in the number of female seafarers since 2015, although they still represent only a small share of the overall workforce. Maritime Education and Training (MET) institutions around the world continue to provide training to develop …

Signals Of Value: A Comparative Analysis Of Sde And Ebitda In Predicting Microbusiness Sale Price, Joseph E. Turley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This dissertation compares the predictive accuracy and stability of Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE) and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) in explaining realized sale prices of microbusinesses. Microbusinesses, defined as firms with fewer than ten employees and annual revenue below $2.5 million, face persistent valuation challenges due to information asymmetry, owner dependence, and informal financial reporting. The study analyzes 5,499 completed U.S. transactions from the DealStats database (2014–2024) after applying microbusiness criteria and outlier trimming. Predictive accuracy is measured by absolute percentage error between actual sale prices and prices implied by each metric. Findings show that SDE-based predictions …

Editor's Note: Economic Resilience In Contested, Noisy, And High-Pressure Environments, Marites Tiongco

DLSU Business & Economics Review

No abstract provided.

Health Status In East Texas, Manuel Reyes-Loya, Cecilia Cuellar, Marilyn Young, Luisa Moraes

Hibbs Newsletter

This issue of the Hibbs Newsletter examines the key economic drivers of East Texas, highlighting trends in GDP, employment, and wages across major metropolitan areas. From 2015 to 2023, the region experienced steady economic growth, led primarily by healthcare, manufacturing, and mining industries. The report emphasizes healthcare as a dominant contributor to both employment and high-wage occupations, offering insight into the region’s evolving economic structure

How Interest Rates Influence Entry Level Employment Growth For Undergraduate Economics Students, Stiles B. Logan, Marc Joseph, Dylan Hilburn, Hayden Baker, Krisha Patel

SPARK Symposium Presentations

The United States job market has become a growing concern for graduating college students over the last decade. With rising unemployment, increased competition, and the rise of generative AI technology over the last five years, more students than ever are genuinely concerned that they will be unable to find long-term employment after graduation. In this paper, we will analyze the correlation between United States interest rates and entry-level employment growth, with the goal of contributing new and actionable information to help graduating college students plan for the future. We will be using data from IPUMS and FRED, spanning January 2009–December …

From State House To World Health Assembly: The Distinct Missions Of National And International Leadership In Oral Healthcare, Robert A. Faiella Dmd, Mmsc., Mba, William R. Calnon Dds, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Leadership in oral healthcare has long been treated as a skill assimilated over time through experience rather than intentionally defined, taught, and assessed. Unlike clinical practice, education, research, and infection control, leadership in oral healthcare lacks consistent standards despite its critical role in integrating these systems and guiding the profession’s future. As healthcare becomes increasingly collaborative and global, dentistry must deliberately develop leadership capabilities at multiple levels. This article examines leadership at the national and international levels, using the American Dental Association’s role within U.S. and global health and dental organizations as examples. It explores why these leadership contexts require …

Long-Lasting Impact Of Public Health Dentistry, Michal Herman Dds, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

This article reflects on the enduring impact of public health dentistry through the author’s 25-year professional journey serving underserved and marginalized communities. It examines persistent barriers to equitable oral health care, including workforce shortages, inadequate insurance coverage, racial disparities, and limited access in rural and low-income populations. Drawing on experiences in nonprofit and community dentistry, the article highlights the importance of mentorship, advocacy, leadership, and community engagement in addressing oral health inequities. It argues that public health dentistry represents a form of professional altruism grounded in service and social responsibility, and calls on dental professionals to expand access, support workforce …

The Impact Of Shariah Law, Liquidity And Interest Rate On Sukuk Growth In Malaysia In Short And Long Run: The Ardl Estimation, Dheya Hamood Saif Al-Fakih, Shahsuzan Zakaria, Md Khairu Amin Ismail

The Indonesian Capital Market Review

The issuance of sukuk has been steadily increasing over time, underscoring its growing significance and the need for further scholarly examination. As a global leader in the Islamic finance industry and a prominent issuer of sukuk, Malaysia serves as a critical case study for understanding this phenomenon. It is essential to investigate various factors and their impact on the growth of sukuk. The study analyzes the relationship between sukuk growth and factors such as interest rate, liquidity (M1), and Shariah law using monthly data from April 2011 to December 2020 obtained from Thomson Reuters Eikon. The study employs the ARDL …

Crisis Communication In The Influencer Era: A Crisis Response Analysis Of Poppi And Alani Nu, Meredith E. Staley

Honors College Theses

As social media continues to reshape modern public relations practice, beverage brands like Alani Nu and Poppi offer relevant examples of influencer-driven communication and crisis response. This honors thesis compares and contrasts these brands following two major crises: Poppi’s influencer vending machine campaign and the health concerns and backlash surrounding Alani Nu’s energy drinks. Despite the well-known prevalence of these brands, there is little scholarly research examining their crisis communication strategies. Guided by Situational Crisis Communication Theory, this study uses a combination of social and news media content analysis to evaluate how each brand responded to its respective crisis. Each …

Tele-Psychiatry Adoption And Its Effect On Rural Mental Health Service Availability, Anna Heineman, Kaylee Canterbury, Taylor Carpenter

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Purpose of study: This study examined the association between tele-psychiatry implementation and mental health service availability in rural healthcare settings. The analysis compared tele-psychiatry to traditional in-person psychiatric care among rural populations, focusing on access and utilization outcomes, including time to first psychiatric appointment, number of completed visits, and appointment no-show rates.

Methods: A qualitative literature review following a systematic approach was conducted using peer-reviewed articles published between 2016-2026. Databases included PubMed, ProQuest Health, CINAHL, Journal of Medical Internet Research, and the National Library of Medicine, with Google Scholar used as a supplemental source. The review followed PRISMA …

Too Warm To Lead? How Motherhood And Racioethnicity Shape Perceptions Of Warmth And Competence, Patricia Guerrero

Management Dissertations

Women continue to face workplace bias, including wage disparities (Fry & Aragao, 2025) and barriers to advancement like the glass ceiling (Babic & Hansez, 2021). For mothers these challenges are compounded by stereotypes tied to their maternal status, such as assumptions about reduced commitment and the motherhood penalty (Arena Jr. et al., 2023). Research shows mothers are often viewed as warmer but less competent than non-mothers, which can hinder career progression (Cuddy et al., 2004; Heilman & Okimoto, 2008). Racial and ethnic stereotypes further shape perceptions, with Black women often labeled as “aggressive” and Latinas as “nurturing” (Ghavami & Peplau, …

Collective Bargaining In The Usa : Union Success Within And Outside Of The Flawed Legal Framework, Angela B. Cornell

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The labour movement in the US experienced a powerful upswing under President Biden, but even with a labour-friendly administration thousands of new bargaining units labour without collective bargaining agreements years a#er being organised. The many limitations and weaknesses of the collective-bargaining framework under the private-sector statute, the NLRA, contribute to this very unfortunate outcome including enterprise rather than sectoral bargaining, a lack of meaningful remedies for serious bargaining violations, very little interest arbitration when the parties cannot reach agreement and the extremely limited right to strike. Millions of American workers are deprived of the right to bargain collectively because of …

Counterfactual Indeterminacy Bias In Family Firm Research, Chevy-Hanqing Fang, James J. Chrisman, Alfredo De Massis

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ever since scholars recognized that family firms are heterogeneous, many studies have attempted to compare different types of family firms without ensuring that the source of heterogeneity is unique to family firms. When the source of heterogeneity among family firms resembles the source of heterogeneity among nonfamily firms, the problem of counterfactual indeterminacy bias can lead to misleading or irrelevant findings that fail to distinguish the effects of family influence from factors that affect all firms. We delineate common forms of this bias and offer recommendations to prevent it in research on family firm behavior and performance.

Lease Capitalization And Financial Flexibility: An Empirical Investigation Of Asc 842’S Impact On Liquidity In The Us Telecommunications Industry, Caleb J. Martin

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Measures of liquidity are some of the most important financial ratios to analyze when measuring a firm’s overall financial health and its ability to pay both creditors and dividends. The US telecommunications industry is an industry that has become synonymous with dividends, mergers, and acquisitions, all of which are possible due to industry wide and firm specific liquidity. With the implementation of ASC 842 and the new standard of placing operational leases on the balance sheet, additional research may be warranted to determine the effect ASC 842 may have on firm liquidity. This study investigated whether there was evidence to …

What Is A Standard? Perspectives On Acd’S Standards For Leadership In Oral Healthcare, N. Karl Haden Phd, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

The American College of Dentists’ new Standards for Leadership in Oral Healthcare mark the first attempt in dentistry to articulate standards specifically for leadership, complementing the broader orientation offered by the Ethics Handbook for Dentistry. This article explores the basic question, “What is a standard?” Close reading of the document indicates at least three distinct but related senses of the term: an expectation, a norm, and a guiding principle. The article offers an interpretation of how these three senses fit together coherently. Referencing the Handbook, the article argues that the leadership standards are most impactful only when habituated, when practiced …

American College Of Dentists Team Leadership Standards, Julie Connolly Dds Mph Ms Facd, Sreenivas Koka Dds Ms Phd Mba Mas Facd Fcgdent

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Leadership standards elevate the profession of dentistry by establishing how leaders can be effective and impactful. The American College of Dentists presents 10 carefully curated team leadership standards that serve as guiding principles for team leaders in dental settings. When these standards are followed, leaders increase the likelihood of creating and sustaining a high-performing, mission-focused team. The importance of each standard is described and, where appropriate, examples are provided.

Standards For Leadership In Oral Healthcare: Applying Local And Regional Standards In Practice, Teresa A. Dolan Dds, Mph, Facd, Robin Henderson Dds, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

The dental profession has well-established standards governing clinical practice, education, and research, yet has lacked comparable standards to guide leadership behavior. The American College of Dentists (ACD) Standards for Leadership in Oral Healthcare Task Force developed a comprehensive framework spanning four levels: 1) core; 2) team; 3) local and regional; and 4) national and international. This article describes the local and regional standards, which include 10 standards organized into three themes—Building Foundation, Leading with Purpose, and Developing Others—and their application through interactive workshops at the ACD Spring Leadership Conference 2026. Using structured role-playing exercises, Section leaders and Regents stress-tested the …

J Am Coll Dent 2026 92 2b

Journal of the American College of Dentists

This special issue of the Journal of the American College of Dentists responds to a growing but long-underrecognized demand for humanities and ethics in dental education, practice, and scholarship. It emerges from the work of the National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry (NCHED), a multi-institutional partnership formed in 2023 to address the persistent exclusion of dentistry from broader health humanities conversations. Through national webinars and scholarly collaboration, NCHED has demonstrated substantial interest in ethical reflection, historical analysis, narrative inquiry, and the arts as essential to understanding oral health and dental care.

The unexpectedly strong response to the call …

Navigating The Market: Challenges And Success Factors For Independent Wedding And Event Planning Businesses In The United States, Madeleine Castanon

Hospitality Student Publications

Wedding and event planning is a growing part of the hospitality industry in the United States. It brings in more than five billion dollars each year and supports thousands of small business owners. Even so, independent planners do not get much attention in academic research. Most studies on small businesses do not focus on the specific problems that event planners face. This paper looks at those challenges and what helps planners succeed. The research method used is a review of existing literature on topics like cash flow, seasonal businesses, vendor relationships, and social media marketing. The main finding is that …

A Quality Improvement Project To Decrease Medication Prior Authorization Approval Times, Amena Guinn Babers

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Background: Medication prior authorization requirements add to administrative burden, increase labor costs, and delay patient access to treatment in outpatient specialty settings. This bottleneck directly influences nursing workload and economic performance.

Purpose: To evaluate the fiscal and performance significance of implementing an electronic prior authorization (ePA) process, standardized tracking tools, and staff education in a small orthopedic clinic.

Methods: A pre–post quality improvement design was used. Descriptive statistics and inferential analyses (independent‑samples t tests and Mann–Whitney U tests) were conducted to compare time to approval, staff hours worked, satisfaction scores, and medication pickup timeframes.

Results: Significant reductions were observed in …

Human Resource Policy And Practice In The American Regional Theatre: The Intersection Of The Actors’ Equity Association And The League Of Resident Theatres, Kathleen Holland

Theses and Dissertations--Arts Administration

Human resource management plays a critical yet understudied role in the American regional theatre, an industry characterized by project-based labor, mixed union and nonunion workforces, and deeply ingrained cultural norms that prioritize artistic production over worker well-being. This dissertation examines how institutional human resource policies intersect with the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) collective bargaining agreement and the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), and the implications of these intersections for human resource practice in regional theatre organizations. While entertainment-industry unions predate the formalization of contemporary human resource management, little scholarship has examined how union agreements may shape or substitute for organizational …

Complying With Title Ix In The Nil Era, Benjamin Moyer

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

On July 1, 2021, college athletics forever changed when the NCAA allowed college athletes to receive financial compensation for the use of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) in endorsements and other marketing engagements. While NIL has empowered college athletes and enabled them to profit from their athletic abilities, it has also thrown the college sports industry into chaos. The House v. NCAA settlement agreement, which was officially approved on June 6, 2025, was expected to establish better guardrails for universities. However, the agreement’s approval may only increase universities’ exposure under Title IX. Part of the House settlement agreement enables …

The Future Of Title Ix After House V. Ncaa, Abigail Perkiss

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In October 2025, attorneys representing current and former Division I college athletes filed preliminary briefs in the Ninth Circuit, calling on the appellate court to reverse the settlement in House v. NCAA,¹ which in April 2025 turned intercollegiate athletics on its head. The brief argued that the terms of the settlement stand in violation of Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments, the legislation that prohibited sex-based discrimination in education programs and related activities that receive federal funding. According to the settlement terms, 90 percent of the backpay is earmarked to fund men’s football and basketball players, 5 percent …

Prosocial Ceos And Accounting Manipulation, Mei Feng, Weili Ge, Zhejia Ling, Wei Ting Loh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines the association between chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) prosocial tendency and their firms’ likelihood of accounting manipulation. We measure CEOs’ prosocial tendency based on their involvement with charitable organizations. We find that prosocial CEOs are less likely to engage in accounting manipulation, as proxied by material non-reliance restatements and SEC or DOJ enforcement actions. The effect is more pronounced when CEOs are involved with charities that directly aim to improve the welfare of others and when they face stronger incentives to misreport. These results continue to hold in analyses of changes in CEOs’ prosocial tendency around turnover events. …

The Effect Of Cybersecurity Breaches On Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts, Chih-Ying Chen, Beng Wee Goh, Kiat Bee Jimmy Lee, Na Li

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate the implications of cybersecurity breaches for financial analysts because they play an important role as information intermediaries in capital markets, and it is unknown whether analysts’ earnings forecasts are affected by cybersecurity breaches. Based on a sample of cybersecurity breaches from 2005 to 2018, we find that analysts’ earnings forecasts for firms with cybersecurity breaches are less accurate and more dispersed after a breach than for firms without such breaches. In cross-sectional analyses, we find that the adverse effects of cybersecurity breaches on analysts’ earnings forecasts are more pronounced for firms operating in more volatile business environments, for …

Does Auditor Quality Enhance Csr Disclosure?, Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo, Yanping Xu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate the relation between auditor quality and client firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. Using an international sample of firms from 36 countries over the period 2009–2018 and a measure of the extent of CSR disclosure from Bloomberg, we find strong evidence that client firms with higher quality auditors provide more CSR disclosure. In cross-sectional analyses, we show that the relation between auditor quality and CSR disclosure is accentuated when the information environment is poorer and when the financial reporting environment and the legal institutions are weaker. Lastly, we document that firms with higher quality auditors also exhibit better …

Investor Reactions To Clinical Trial Outcomes: Interpreting Impacts Using Ai-Based Measures Of Investor Sentiment, Sofia K. Weinstein

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how investors react to biotechnology firms’ clinical trial announcements and whether artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance our understanding of those market reactions. Using a representative sample of 95 firm-event observations between 2014 and 2025, the study measures cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) surrounding clinical readouts, regulatory decisions, and partnership disclosures. Event-study regressions test for heterogeneity across trial phase, therapeutic area, and textual sentiment derived from company press releases. Consistent with expectations, later-phase trials, particularly Phase II and III, produce stronger short-term abnormal returns. However, categorical variables such as phase or therapeutic area explain little of the total variation …

Determinants Of The U.S. Experience Economy: A Macroeconomic, Demographic, And Technological Analysis, 1984–2023, Chloe Ross

CMC Senior Theses

Pine and Gilmore et al. 1999 examine American consumers’ preferences for experiences over durable goods. Since then, there has been a multitude of research on the psychology behind this shift in consumption preferences, and there has been an abundance of media coverage of the new “experience economy.” This thesis goes beyond psychology and examines the macroeconomic, demographic, and technological determinants of experiential spending in the United States from 1984 to 2023. I use annual data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) and variables from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), US …

Auditor Independence And Its Impact On Debt Financing Outcomes, Harry Zhou

CMC Senior Theses

This study investigates whether perceived auditor independence, proxied through proportions of non-audit service fees and client dependence of the auditor, is associated with the outcome of debt contracts. While prior research examines how these proxies relate to auditor independence itself, and other strands of literature assess how audit quality influences debt contracting, few studies evaluate whether lenders interpret auditor independence signals in ways consistent with auditors. This study aims to contribute to the broader literature by examining the auditor independence proxies and its direct relationship to debt contract structure holistically. Two OLS models were employed to investigate the relationship between …