Digital Commons Network^™

Academic And Demographic Predictors Of Retention And Persistence In Business Programs: Post-Covid Cohorts Of Traditional And Ncccs Transfer Students, Matthew K. Crump

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study examined academic and demographic predictors of first-year retention and major persistence among traditional first-year and North Carolina community college transfer students enrolled in undergraduate business programs. Guided by Tinto’s 1993 Model of Student Retention and Astin’s 1984 Theory of Student Involvement, the research focused on students who entered two AACSB-accredited institutions within the UNC System during Fall 2021, Fall 2022, and Fall 2023 as traditional first-year students or as transfer students from North Carolina community colleges.

Institutional data from the Banner Student Information System provided the basis for logistic regression analyses that examined predictors including high school …

From Clicking To Committing: Psychological Distance And Persuasion In Online Animal Adoption Platforms To Enhance Shelter Visitation, David Goodweather

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Online animal shelter platforms have become a primary channel through which potential adopters view and evaluate adoptable animals, yet many users do not progress from online engagement to visiting a physical shelter. The dissertation examines how online pet viewing translates into intention to book a shelter visit by focusing on the roles of psychological distance and persuasive influence cues within a high-involvement decision context. Drawing on Construal Level Theory and persuasion research, a sequential process is proposed in which sustained interaction with pet profiles reduces distance-related abstraction, increasing receptivity to influence cues that facilitate movement from initial assessment to action. …

The Digital Divide And Participation In Financial Services: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective, Melissa A. Cunningham-Sereque

Dissertations

The global financial technology (FinTech) market reached nearly $395 billion in 2025 and is projected to surpass $1 trillion within the next decade (Fortune Business Insights, 2025). As digital technologies become increasingly embedded in banking and financial services, this dissertation responds to calls within the Information Systems (IS) discipline to better understand digital access, inclusion, and participation in financial systems (PFS). Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, this study used prominent dimensions from extant digital divide literature to build a digital resource domain consisting of connectability, affordability, usability, mentality, and skill. These dimensions are proposed to influence intrinsic motivation, …

Non-Profit Foundation Boards: An Investigation Into Best Practices Using Fayetteville Public Library Foundation Board As A Test Case, Esther S. Beller

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

Effective governance is critical for the success of non-profit organizations, with foundation boards playing a central role in ensuring accountability, strategic direction, and resource allocation for the organization. This thesis investigates best practices for non-profit foundation boards, using the Fayetteville Public Library Foundation Board as a case study to evaluate the efficiency of its governance practices. The research aims to identify whether the foundation board operates efficiently and adheres to established best practices for non-profit governance boards.

To address this, a two-phase methodology was employed. The first phase involved an extensive review of scholarly journals, industry guidelines, and other resources …

Three Essays On Consumers' Financial Decision-Making, Zakieh Kaveh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines how emerging financial and service technologies shape consumer decision-making and consumption behavior. Across three essays, this research investigates how technological features embedded in payment methods, self-service systems, and artificial intelligence influence consumers' psychological processes and behavioral outcomes in financial and marketplace contexts.

Connecting Work And Family Life: The Effects Of Family-Related Moderators On Idiosyncratic Deals Of Employees And Work Outcomes., Tanushree Chatterjee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), which are customized work arrangements negotiated between employees and their organizations, have been increasingly recognized as a strategic mechanism for addressing the heterogeneous needs of today's diverse workforce. However, existing research has largely overlooked the role of employees' family backgrounds as a moderating context that shapes their effectiveness. Drawing on work-life border theory (Clark, 2000) and conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989), the study tests whether work-family conflict and work-family enrichment mediate the downstream effects of i-deals on turnover intentions and job performance through the moderation of four family-related characteristics (parent status, number of children, family support, …

Three Essays On Workplace Ethics And Ai: Conceptualizing, Scale Development, And Validation Of Self-Value Actualization, And Ai-Enabled High-Performance Work Systems, Mansura Nusrat

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation advances understanding of workplace ethics and responsible AI integration across three interconnected essays unified by social cognitive theory. My first essay introduces self-value actualization (SVA), a novel construct defined as the dynamic, integrated psychological process through which individuals continually strive to align and fulfill their core moral values through observable professional behavior. Drawing on social cognitive theory and emotional intelligence theory, I conceptualize SVA as a higher-order self-regulatory orientation comprising three mutually reinforcing processes: value congruence, moral reflection, and adaptive morality. I developed and validated a 9-item SVA scale across four studies using expert panels, exploratory factor analysis, …

"Forward Together, Not One Step Back": Southern Women, Joy, And The Revitalization Of A Movement, Katelyn Holly Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to illuminate the ways that working women across the Southern United States organize labor within their communities both in and outside of the traditional union space. Due to the repressive nature of labor policy across the Southern US, this study focuses on how both unions and non-union organizations in the South generate feelings of collective identity and sustain solidarity. This study explores one central question: How do women in unions and worker-organizations in the South build solidarity and sustain collective action under restrictive labor conditions. Early findings reveal that working women in the South navigate multiple barriers …

The Effects Of Vocational Self-Concept Crystallization And Career Choice On Crop Farming Apprenticeship Completers: An Exploratory Qualitative Analysis, Stormy Zane Speaks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Across the United States, a farmer shortage threatens the future of food production as the population continues to grow. However, farming apprenticeship programs may be a solution to this crisis. This study addressed a gap in research regarding the career decision-making processes of farm apprenticeship completers. Specifically, this study sought to identify whether farm apprenticeship completion resulted in greater vocational self-concept crystallization as well as farming as a career choice. Due to the lack of research, an exploratory qualitative research design was most suitable for this study. Donald Super’s self-concept development theory was the theoretical framework. Self-concept development theory was …

Integrating People And Technology: Exploring The Validation Of The King And Hughes Hrd, Technology Ethics, And Leadership Scale, Hannah King

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

People and technologies have coexisted within organizations for centuries. In the wave of the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions, however, organizations must place an emphasis on ethically integrating new technologies, like artificial intelligence, alongside people in order to sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. A review of the literature identified a need for more research examining ethics in the use of technology by HRD professionals. The purpose of this descriptive research study was to assess the relationship between HRD activities, ethics, and technology and examine the influence that an organization’s code of ethics has on their integration. This study …

From Reactive To Predictive: A Hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework For Data-Driven Maintenance In Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments, Dustin J. Foote

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains inconsistent across sectors. Contemporary aircraft incorporate centralized maintenance computers and condition monitoring architectures capable of fault aggregation, exceedance capture, and trend-based data collection. Although prognostics and health management research continues to advance detection and prediction methods, implementation outcomes often depend on factors beyond analytical performance alone.

This paper examines predictive maintenance adoption in distributed-authority aviation environments and argues that constraints emerge less from sensing capability than from organizational structure, decision authority dispersion, and institutional trust dynamics. For purposes of analysis, …

The Night Circus - The Traveling Edition: An Advertising Campaign And Cross-Cultural Analysis, Charlee A. Salinas

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis is an outline of my advertising plansbook that examines how culturally adapted advertising for a single book affects perceived authenticity, emotional resonance, and purchase intent across three distinct markets: the United States, Brazil, and Vietnam. This study examines three culturally distinct markets to identify which advertising elements require full localization versus those where standardization is acceptable. By comparing adapted campaigns against a standardized approach, this research provides actionable insights for publishers navigating the efficiency-effectiveness trade-off.

The research questions asked:

-       How does culturally adapted advertising for the same book affect perceived authenticity, emotional resonance, and purchase intent across …

Algorithmic Resilience Memory: Designing Agentic Ai Systems For Organizational Learning And Climate-Crisis Adaptation, Harsha Sammangi, Aditya Jagatha, Navyasri Maddukuri

Research & Publications

Climate disruption has become a persistent organizational condition rather than an episodic event, yet most information systems designed to support organizational resilience treat each disruption as an isolated incident. Existing digital resilience platforms, disaster recovery systems, and AI-driven decision support tools lack the capacity to accumulate, encode, and reuse organizational knowledge across successive climate-related crises. This paper introduces Algorithmic Resilience Memory (ARM), a novel IS construct defined as an AI-enabled organizational capability through which agentic AI systems sense climate-related disruptions, encode prior organizational responses, preserve decision rationale, generate contextually adaptive recommendations, and reconfigure future actions through structured outcome feedback. Drawing …

Understanding Customer Engagement Behavior In Virtual Try-On Services: Evidence From Indonesia, Nyoman Sri Subawa, Ni Putu Chantika Aprilia Nariswari, Made Maenita Dewi, Anak Agung Gede Wiranata, Caren Angellina Mimaki, Made Srinitha Millinia Utami

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The adoption of immersive technologies, such as Virtual Try-On (VTO), has transformed how consumers evaluate products, interact digitally, and engage with brands. This study investigates the effects of experiential value, flow, perceived enjoyment, customer trust, and customer satisfaction on customer engagement behavior, within the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework. Experiential value serves as the stimulus, flow and psychological states as the organism, and engagement as the response. Data were collected from 320 Indonesian e-commerce using a purposive sampling technique, targeting respondents with prior experience using Virtual Try-On (VTO) features through an online questionnaire distributed via Google Forms, and were subsequently analyzed using …

2026 May, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for May of 2026.

Political Costs And Strategic Corporate Communication, Christine Cuny, Jungbae Kim, Mihir N. Mehta

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

When subject to public scrutiny, do firms strategically use advertising to reduce expected political costs? Advertising can ease public concerns, thereby reducing the pressure on politicians to act harshly against scrutinized firms and their industries. We use repeated congressional testimony by industry members as a novel way to identify political scrutiny. Our central finding is that scrutinized industries increase their advertising spending 132 percent more in the electorates of politicians overseeing the hearings than in the electorates of other politicians. Further, strategic advertising is complementary to income-decreasing accounting choices and a substitute for lobbying. Overall, our study sheds light on …

Meritocracy And Equal Access To The Public Sector: A Comparative Analysis Of Accessibility To Public Sector Jobs And Public Services, Beomgeun Cho, Heasun Choi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study investigates the impact of meritocracy on equal access to the public sector, focusing on public sector employment and services. While meritocratic principles promote impartiality and fairness in administrative processes, their effectiveness in improving equal accessibility remains understudied and contested. Drawing on the literature linking meritocracy to democratic stability, we argue that strong meritocratic systems enhance equal access to the public sector regardless of social groups and gender by fostering professional stewardship in the bureaucracy and strengthening checks and balances between bureaucrats and politicians. Our findings, drawn from a panel dataset consisting of 161 countries over 49 years, suggest …

An Examination Of Student-Faculty Relationships As A Factor In Retention Of Students In The Department Of Agriculture, Macie C. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover the best approach in building academic relationships between students and faculty. Based on past research, student GPA, learning style, faculty relatability, and involvement were common factors in retention research. These factors contributed to the creation of statements used to analyze the best course of action in building academic relationships between students and faculty. Students and faculty in the Department of Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University were able to rank statements using a Quasi-Q-Sort. Results from the Quasi-Q-Sort were analyzed using cross-tabulation, descriptive statistics, Kendall’s W, and Mann-Whitney tests. Following these …

Voices Of A New Era: A Discursive Psychology Study Of Influencer-Follower Discourse On Tiktok, Andrea Guerrero Hernandez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study researched and investigated the discourse of five mega fashion influencers on TikTok, as well as the discourse of 15 followers engaging with fashion influencer content on the same platform. The theory used to guide this study was discursive psychology theory, which provided the groundwork for understanding how both influencers and followers position their identities, justify their actions and decisions, and construct their reality. The primary aim of this research is to deepen understanding of how influencer discourse shapes follower discourse, identifying recurring patterns, contradictions, and the ways in which tensions are negotiated. The findings reveal a range …

Practicing Conflict Transformation Skills Through Role-Playing Games For Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Higher Education, Alexandra Schreiber, Kjell H. Hugaas, Sarah L. Bowman

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

No abstract provided.

The Functions Of Role- Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems And Explore Identity, De Sarah Lynne Bowman (2010) [Reseña De Libro], Cristo Leon

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity, by Sarah Lynne Bowman, is an ambitious, wide-ranging, and still necessary work for role-playing game studies. Published in 2010, the book proposes that role-playing and roleplaying games fulfill three main social and psychological functions: creating community, facilitating problem solving, and enabling the exploration of identity. Bowman develops this thesis through a combination of theoretical review, cultural reflection, and participant-observer ethnography, based on interviews with players of tabletop role-playing games, live-action roleplaying games, and virtual environments. Organized into seven chapters, the book moves clearly from the …

The Impact Of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, And Employee Engagement On The Intent To Leave The Law Enforcement Profession For Police Officers, Veronica Lynn Dougherty-Denny

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today’s dynamic organizational environment, worker factors such as job satisfaction, employee engagement, organizational commitment, and psychological contract fulfillment are vital for organizational success. This study examined their perceived relationship with police officers’ intent to leave the law enforcement profession. The problem addressed worked to understand factors influencing retention, including psychological contract breaches and workplace outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the perceived relationship between job satisfaction, employee engagement, organizational commitment, and intent to leave the law enforcement profession all housed within the psychological contract. Five research questions addressed these variables and demographic factors (gender, years …

Assessing The Viability Of Cryptocurrency As A Payment Method: A Consumer Perspective, Aadavan Dharumaiyan

Dissertations

The problem addressed in this study was the limited mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies for daily retail transactions despite continued technological advancement and increasing institutional interest. The purpose of this qualitative study, grounded in Husserlian descriptive phenomenology, was to explore the perceptual and behavioral factors influencing this adoption gap. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling, resulting in eight participants divided into two cohorts: active cryptocurrency payment users (Cohort 1, n = 2) and cryptocurrency holders who did not use cryptocurrencies for payments (Cohort 2, n = 6). Data were analyzed using the Moustakas phenomenological approach to identify patterns in participant experiences. …

Unpacking American Reception Of Glocalized Non-English Content In The Netflix Era, Sur Govindarajan

Dissertations

The swift growth of streaming services has revolutionized the worldwide distribution of media, making it possible for non-English and non-English-adjacent content to reach American consumers on a never-before-seen scale, which is sometimes perceived as an indication of increasing cultural tolerance. However, while a lot is known about what audiences see, far less is known about how they really understand and assess these stories. There is a fundamental vacuum in our understanding of audience reception as a lived, meaning-making process because previous research has mostly focused on consumption patterns. In order to close that gap, this study examines how American audiences …

Unlocking Innovation: The Impact Of Psychological Safety, Organizational Structure, And Rigidity On The Pursuit Of Innovation Within The Firm, Robert Kyle Rudd

Theses and Dissertations

Innovation is often a competitive advantage generator, growth, and organizational success. However, there is relatively little empirical literature that describes how organizations may be designed such that employees also feel significant freedom to innovate. This dissertation investigates the role of psychological safety and organizational design conditions, perceived organizational structure and perceived organizational rigidity as joint predictors of perceived freedom to innovate (PFTI) of employees.

The quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used to gather data of 425 full-time U.S.-based employees who were recruited through CloudResearch. Respondents undertook validated scales of psychological safety, perceived organizational structure, perceived organizational rigidity and perceived freedom …

Cultural Dimensions And Ethical Perceptions Of Tax Evasion In The Digital Tax Reporting Era, Renna Magdalena, Henny Cheirine

International Conference on Business and Management Research (ICBMR)

Tax evasion is still a significant challenge for Indonesia's state revenue. This study examines how Hofstede's cultural dimension affects the ethical perception of tax evasion in Javanese MSME owners to overcome the gap in understanding of cultural factors that affect tax compliance behaviour at the individual level. In the context of a tax reporting system that has been fully digitised through e-filing and online applications, it is important to understand that the existence of technology does not necessarily remove the moral rationale for fraudulent acts. A quantitative survey was conducted on 112 MSME owners. Using validated instruments, the study used …

One For All, All For Innovation: Transforming The Indonesia’S Public Sector Through Ambidextrous Leadership, Dian Mulia Sari, Elok Savitri Pusparini

International Conference on Business and Management Research (ICBMR)

In an era defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), public sector organizations face increasing pressure to innovate. This study examines how ambidextrous leadership influences innovative work behavior (IWB) among civil servants, with psychological ownership (PO) serving as a mediator. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 152 structural and functional officials within Indonesia’s State Finance Organization (OKN) and analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results indicate that ambidextrous leadership has a significant direct effect on IWB. More importantly, psychological ownership mediates this relationship through two distinct pathways: promotive PO strengthens IWB by fostering confidence and proactive contribution, while preventive …

Driving Innovative Work Behavior In The Public Sector: The Roles Of Transformational Leadership And Change Management, Hafsah Fibrihirzani, Elok Savitri Pusparini

International Conference on Business and Management Research (ICBMR)

Innovative work behavior is a strategic factor in strengthening innovation capacity in the public sector and fostering an innovative organizational climate. Understanding how transformational leadership and change management contribute to innovative work behavior is therefore essential for enhancing performance and sustainability in public organizations. This study analyzes the influence of transformational leadership on employees’ innovative work behavior, with change management as a mediating variable.

The study used a quantitative approach, with data collected from 159 employees of a public research institution. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique to examine both direct …

Beyond Bureaucracy: Entrepreneurial Mindset And Ai Readiness As Drivers Of Business Model Innovation In Blu Business Units — A Conceptual Framework, Ahmad Nurholis, Muhammad Rifky Adzakie

International Conference on Business and Management Research (ICBMR)

This paper advances a conceptual framework that examines how entrepreneurial mindset (EM) and AI readiness interact to shape business model innovation (BMI) and financial performance (FP) within Indonesia’s profit-oriented Public Service Agency (BLU) business units. As hybrid organizations, BLU business units must simultaneously fulfill their public service mandate while pursuing revenue generation, creating a unique context that demands stronger theoretical grounding. The framework draws on New Public Management (NPM) principles and the Dynamic Capabilities (DC) perspective to argue that an entrepreneurial mindset stimulates BMI both directly and indirectly through enhanced AI readiness. In turn, BMI is positioned as a driver …

Strategies To Maximize User Satisfaction And Experience, Consumers' Perspective On Logistic Company Performance In Surabaya., Hananiel M. Gunawan Mr

International Conference on Business and Management Research (ICBMR)

This study examines the influence of Cost Efficiencies (CE), Regulatory Compliance (RC), Technology Integration (TI), and Network Reach (NR) on Customer Experience (CX) and Customer Satisfaction (CS), and how these factors subsequently affect Company Performance (CP) in the context of express delivery services for export activities. The research employed primary data with 100 valid responses from a total of 168 returned questionnaires, collected through purposive sampling. Eligible respondents were UPS customers who had used export services at least twice within the past three months. Data obtained were analyzed using quantitative methods. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between Customer …