Digital Commons Network^™

Healer Or Human? How Online Physician Reviews Guide Patient Choice, Shabnam Azimi, Sina Ansari, Ignacio Luri, Atefeh Yazdanparast

Faculty Publications

Online reviews increasingly guide physician choice, yet it remains unclear whether content emphasizing a physician's competence (technical skills) or benevolence (prioritizing patients' welfare over self‐interest) more strongly influences patients' decisions. Integrating a field study of 12,351 physician reviews with two online experiments, we distinguish two dimensions of review effectiveness: how helpful readers find a review, and how confident they feel about the choice it informs. We show that competence‐ and benevolence‐focused content influences these outcomes through distinct mechanisms. Benevolence‐focused reviews receive higher helpfulness evaluations because caring behaviors are easier to describe in concrete, vivid language and because naturalistic review platforms …

Charismatic Leaders Role And Challenges During Crises, Tamer Hassan Abutahoun Phd

Journal of the North American Management Society

Since the first article about charismatic leadership by Weber was issued in 1946, numerous pieces of research have been published discussing several aspects of charismatic leadership. One of these aspects is the role of the charismatic leader during crisis and whether it is being impacted by crises or emerged during crises. Several articles have been published to investigate the role of charismatic leadership during crises along with how individuals perceived charismatic leadership during crises. Most of these articles utilized case studies to investigate the former mentioned relationship. However, each of these studies investigated the relationship between crises and charismatic leadership …

Navigating Ai Landscape In Management Education Through Wu-Wei (無為), Maria Ll Lam

Journal of the North American Management Society

Artificial intelligence (AI) is challenging how knowledge is produced, validated, and taught in higher education. This creates both new opportunities and acute tensions in management education. While management educators aim to foster critical thinking and character development, many students are increasingly relying on AI tools and focusing on developing AI-related skills for the labor market. The required market skills often exceed what current business curricula provide. As higher education seeks to cultivate transferable habits of critical reflection, a central question arises: How can management educators prepare students to engage in ongoing moral reflection about their experience with evolving AI systems …

Potential Discriminatory Practices Related To Working Remotely, David M. Savino, Danielle C. Foster

Journal of the North American Management Society

There are numerous implications of the recent "return to the office" push, including evolving influences on corporate culture, job redesign, the role of technology, and the significant potential for unequal treatment and discrimination. Recent research and studies indicate that the workers involved in remote work are most likely to be women, workers of color, and the disabled. While remote work is not a protected classification under state or Federal law, these individuals are members of protected classes as determined by fair employment law. Therefore, disputed and evolving policies regarding the use of remote work related to these individuals could easily …

Artificial Intelligence And Technology - Joni Full Issue July 2026, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Ai-Powered Logistics For Small Nonprofits: A No-Code, Sub-$10 System For Real-Time Distribution Across 41 Locations, Rishi D. Chundury

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Small nonprofits often struggle to coordinate multi-site distribution campaigns with limited staff, tight budgets, and little access to technology. This article describes how Eye on July Corp., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Omaha, Nebraska, built an AI-powered system to manage the distribution of 20,000 free safety glasses across 41 community locations for July 4th. The system was built without any coding using three commercially available tools, where Airtable stores the data, Make.com runs the automation, and Anthropic's Claude API provides the intelligence, all at a total cost of under $10. The platform collects stock counts from partner locations, analyzes inventory to …

Marketing Strategies To Enhance Awareness And Attract International Patients In The Medical Tourism Industry Of Trinidad And Tobago, Natasha Rachel Rochford-Chance

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disseminating inadequate service information can limit a business's market appeal and hinder its growth. Business leaders must include comprehensive service information in their marketing strategies, as inadequate service information can make a business seem unappealing to potential clients, undermine competitive position, reduce market share, and diminish profitability. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore the marketing strategies used by medical tourism business leaders in Trinidad and Tobago to attract international patients and increase profitability. The participants were eight medical tourism business leaders with experience in implementing marketing strategies. McCarthy's marketing mix theory of product, price, place, and …

“It’S Its Own Toxic”: Occupational Opportunities And Barriers For Lgbq+ Collegiate Athletic Administrators, Colleen S. O'Connell, Michelle E. Moosbrugger, Jill Kochanek, Elizabeth M. Mullin

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Athletic administrators hold positions of influence within intercollegiate sport, yet their experiences, especially in relation to sexual identity, remain underexamined. The purpose of this study was to explore the occupational experiences and environments of LGBQ+ intercollegiate athletic administrators using a narrative inquiry qualitative design. Sixteen administrators, who occupied various positions across all NCAA levels, were interviewed. Guided by Sexual Stigma and Prejudice Theory and Poststructuralism Theory, collected data were analyzed at the semantic and latent levels using reflexive thematic analysis. Two distinct themes were generated: LGBQ+ administrators described both positive and negative aspects of their workplaces. Inclusive environments were committed …

Stop Blaming My Users: Illumination Of The Technocentric Mythos Bias, Ervin H. Frenzel, Richard Lightcap

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

 Abstract -This conceptual essay addresses the need for systemic and systematic transdisciplinary analytical techniques within cybersecurity and technical security. This conceptual essay is contingent upon recognition that cybersecurity is not simply technical in nature, it does not need an adversary, and more importantly it is based upon systems engineering and systems thinking.  The essay contributes a socio-technical attribution chain and field-specific ontology/taxonomy which distinguish user-triggered events from root causes, latent conditions, technical debt, validation failures, governance failures, and attribution bias before assigning responsibility to end users. It systematically defines an ontology inclusive of developer technical debt, organizational debt arising from …

International Student Athletes And The Covid-19 Global Pandemic: Disruption, Uncertainty, And Coping, Isabella M. Franks, Trent A. Petrie, Whitney G. Moore, Carmyn Hayes

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

COVID-19 and its ripple effects (e.g., social distancing, sport cancellations, quarantining) negatively affected the careers of collegiate student-athletes. The disruption to university systems and collegiate athletics and the stress and uncertainty felt globally likely increased international student-athletes' (ISAs) risk for distress. Yet, ISAs also possessed unique characteristics and were immersed within supportive sport environments, which may have shaped their psychological responses in distinct ways. The COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity to understand how ISAs, as individuals navigating both athletic and international identities, responded and coped. To date, no study has examined the initial coping experiences of international collegiate athletes, even …

Perceived Safety For Collegiate Student-Athletes: Race, Gender, And Mental Health Outcomes, Macey L. Arnold, Hunter P. Williams, Justin Harker, Heather Kiefer, Julian Yoon, Trent A. Petrie

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

Inadequate levels of perceived safety on campuses have been reported by college students (e.g., Maffini & Dillard, 2021) and connected to college students' mental health concerns (e.g., sleep disturbances; Etopio et al., 2019). Little is known about student-athletes’ (SA) perceptions of safety, particularly related to their racial and gender identities, and how their perception of safety is related to their mental health. We surveyed 213 SAs regarding their safety perceptions on campus, athletic department, and teams, along with anxiety (GAD-2), depression (PHQ-2), and sleep disturbances (PROMIS-SD). White SAs reported higher levels of safety than Black SAs for all three environments …

Performance, Pressure, And Prescription: A Qualitative Investigation Of Maladaptive Coping In Collegiate Cheerleading, Chris Corr, Taylor Behl

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

While cheerleading is a staple among athletics competition in the United States, cheerleading has perennially struggled to achieve legitimacy as a competitive and rigorous sport. However, cheerleaders experience similar stressors to those of their athlete peers. In addition, cheerleaders occupy unique and distinct stressors pertaining to expectations for appearance and behavior. While extant research has examined maladaptive coping mechanisms among competing athletes, the distinct pressures and stressors associated with cheerleading may be associated with unique engagement in maladaptive coping. Accordingly, the present study sought to examine the prevalence and propensity of maladaptive coping behaviors among a sample of current and …

'It's Going To Be Colder Than San Diego': Pre-Transition Experiences Of American Postgraduate Athletes At One British University, Lara Killick, Pete Schroeder

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

Athlete migration is a visible element of the sport-globalization nexus. At the intercollegiate level, a new migration pattern has recently emerged. Numerous British universities are recruiting American postgraduate athletes for a variety of sports. International athlete migration has been examined using the cultural transition model (CTM) (Ryba et al., 2016). CTM features three phases that profile the developmental tracks migrant athletes experience in a new culture. This study used CTM to qualitatively explore the pre-transition experiences of American postgraduate athletes. Nineteen Americans playing at one British university were interviewed prior to the 2022-23 academic year. Data were recorded, transcribed, and …

How Do Habitual Entrepreneurs Develop Entrepreneurial Addiction?, Wan Khairul Anuar Wan Abd Manan, Athirah Ismail, Puteri Fadzline Muhamad Tamyez Fadzline

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

Habitual entrepreneurs are a key driver of economic development. Hence, it is important to generate a more detailed understanding of their addictive behaviour while running their businesses. The purpose of this study is to explore whether and how habitual entrepreneurs develop entrepreneurial addiction and the effects of this addiction. The study is based on a qualitative research design and analyzes the development of entrepreneurial addiction among habitual entrepreneurs. Findings indicated that habitual entrepreneurs actively develop entrepreneurial addiction after owning three businesses, due to several symptoms, namely, fulfilment, opportunity obsession, tolerance, engagement, and neglect, along with prior entrepreneurial experiences. Habitual entrepreneurs …

Sustainable Consumer Behavior Modeling: A Complex-Systems Approach To Neuromarketing, Preethi Nanjundan, Nupoor Sanjay Bhute, Ragini Topre, Lijo Thomas

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

This study examines the application of complex-systems modeling to neuromarketing data for gaining deeper insights into the mechanisms underlying sustainable consumer behavior. It investigates how neural and biometric responses, interpreted through a systems-based perspective, can uncover dynamic interactions, feedback mechanisms, and emergent behavioral patterns influencing sustainable purchase decisions. The research explores the impact of sustainability-oriented marketing stimuli on long-term behavioral intentions by emphasizing the interconnected roles of cognitive processing, emotional engagement, implicit associations, and collective consumer dynamics. Through simulation-based modeling and structural analysis, the study demonstrates how subconscious neural responses and affective mechanisms mediate the relationship between marketing interventions, consumer …

Ai Adoption And Organizational Resilience In Turbulent Environments: The Mediating Role Of Employee Digital Literacy And The Moderating Role Of Innovation-Supportive Climate In The Iraqi Hospitality Sector, Hasan Mutashar Gbouri

Arab Economic and Business Journal

This study examines whether adopting artificial intelligence (AI) strengthens organizational resilience when the operating environment is hostile, and identifies the internal conditions an organization must satisfy before an AI investment translates into resilience. Two mechanisms anchor the argument: employee digital literacy, which carries the effect, and an innovation-supportive climate, which conditions it. We surveyed 400 employees across three premium hotels in Baghdad, Iraq, sampled by operational level, and tested the model with structural equation modeling in AMOS 26.0. The results show that AI adoption alone yields only a modest direct gain in resilience. Slightly more than half of its total …

Entrepreneurship Ecosystems, Desire, And Convergence, Kyle Scott

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship ecosystem research explains convergence through mechanisms such as informational cascades, institutional isomorphism, herding, clustering, and knowledge spillovers. While these perspectives account for how convergence occurs, they provide a more limited explanation of why entrepreneurs, investors, and other ecosystem participants come to pursue the same ventures, industries, and measures of success. This paper argues that convergence reflects the social mediation of desire. Drawing on René Girard's theory of mimetic desire, it develops a conceptual framework explaining how entrepreneurial desire becomes aligned within shared evaluative environments. The paper advances three propositions. First, ecosystems characterized by evaluative monism are more likely to …

Effective Strategies To Improve Telemedicine Services For Veterans In Baltimore, Maryland: A Qualitative Single-Case Study, Dolapo Uthman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative single-case study investigated the inefficiency and limited accessibility of telemedicine services within a selected healthcare organization located in Baltimore, Maryland. The purpose of this study was to investigate how telemedicine services can be improved to enhance healthcare outcomes for patients and their overall quality of life. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 16 participants, supported by fieldnotes, and publicly available documents, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Methodological triangulation was used to validate the findings to ensure credibility and consistency. The research indicated that telemedicine enhances access to healthcare and supports continuity of care, especially for …

Banks' Conservative Lending Since Covid-19: The Effect On Trading Rates, Daniella Puig

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation investigated how bank’s conservative lending during the COVID-19 global pandemic affected trading rates, examined through a constructivist lens and established with a flexible, mixed-methods design. Rather than addressing bank behavior and market pricing in a mechanical way, this study contextualizes mortgage lending conservatism as a response to uncertainty derived from a socially constructed interpretation of risk, the financial narrative at the time, and regulatory policy. Using qualitative interviews with mortgage lenders, combined with a quantitative analysis of survey data, this research explores mortgage lending decision- making during the crisis. The flexible design enables the use of both qualitative …

Employing Derivatives In Exchange-Traded Funds: International Perspective And Polish Evidence, Tomasz Miziołek

Journal of Banking and Financial Economics

The main aims of the paper are to examine the use of derivatives by 13 exchange-traded funds primarily listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange over 2010–2025, including their magnitude and functions, and to identify patterns in derivative use over the past three decades worldwide. The results reveal that derivative use was common among exchange-traded funds listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange; however, it was limited to basic applications. Futures (standard, e-mini, and micro e-mini) were used to obtain leveraged or inverse market exposure or as a supplement to equity holdings, total return swaps were used for synthetic replication, and forwards …

A Strategic Guide To Understanding How Leadership Motivation Creates A Productive Work Environment In The Service Sector, Sakina Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative case study explored the challenges leaders face in motivating employees in the service sector that threaten a productive work environment in the educational sector. The problem to be addressed is the challenges leaders face in motivating employees within the service sector that threaten a productive work environment. The purpose of this study is to explore how leadership strategies influence employee motivation and productivity, particularly within the education industry, where leaders often contend with stressors such as workplace change, low morale, and burnout. Guided by a constructive constructivist paradigm, the research employed a qualitative multiple-case study design, using semi-structured …

Procedural And Distributive Unfairness In Ai Interactions: Are People Less Satisfied With Unfairness From Ai Compared To Humans?, Devon S. Johnson, Sungyong Chun, Sneha Pandey, Gouher Ahmed

Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study investigates consumer perceptions of procedural and distributive fairness/unfairness in service interactions involving AI versus human providers. It also examines how these perceptions are influenced by technology-related discomfort and the perceived responsibility of the service organization. A scenario-based online experiment was conducted using participants recruited through the Prolific research platform. Participants were asked to review a small business loan application process at a fictional digital bank where the application is processed either by an AI algorithm or a human loan officer. The study found that consumers experienced a higher level of satisfaction when they encountered procedural unfairness from humans …

Founder Teams, Social Networks, And New Firm Performance, Joyce Zhou, Jun Yu, Arturo Rodriguez, Josh Tolleson

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

Research has shown that entrepreneurs’ social networks have a positive effect on the performance of new business ventures. However, much of the research in this area has focused on the individual entrepreneur, even though it is recognized that most new business ventures are started by a team of entrepreneurs. Integrating theories of social networks, top-management teams, and the resource-based view, this study focuses on the effect of the characteristics of entrepreneur teams on entrepreneurial social networks as well as the availability of resources made possible by these social networks. It also examines the potential for team cohesion to moderate the …

An Analysis Of The Sport Fan You Don’T Want To Encounter: Willpower And Fan Dysfunction, Anna M. Minor, Daniel L. Wann

Findings in Sport, Hospitality, Entertainment, and Event Management

Dysfunctional sport fans are classified as fans who have impaired function as it relates to socialization and social groups in the sport context, leading them to be highly confrontational and frequently complain within sporting environments (Wakefield & Wann, 2006). These fans are frequently loud, obsessive and even violent (Wann & James, 2019). The current research attempts to provide insight into this degree of excessive fandom behavior. Although previous work has examined demographics, alcohol, media consumption, and game attendance among dysfunctional fans, research has yet to examine the level of willpower (i.e., self-control) among these persons. With consideration that dysfunctional sport …

Participation Motivation Of Diverse Pickleball Participants: With A Marketing Implication, Mark Lifang Zhang, Steve S. Chen, Scott Thorton, Eric Street

Findings in Sport, Hospitality, Entertainment, and Event Management

Pickleball has been widely reported as one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. Prior research has largely attributed this growth to the psychosocial benefits that pickleball provides to older adults, including increased social interaction and enhanced overall well-being. However, limited attention has been given to participation motivations and perceived benefits among other participant groups. The purpose of this study was to examine pickleball participants’ motivations, interests, and intentions for continued involvement across diverse demographic groups.

Participants included 431 individuals (54% male, 46% female) representing four age groups, with 67% aged 55 and older. Participants were recruited from two …

Coaching One's Own Child: An Ethnographic Study Of Parent-Coach Experiences In Youth Sport, Dr. Sandra Alspach, Dr. Jon Coles

Findings in Sport, Hospitality, Entertainment, and Event Management

Over 27 million children in the United States are playing youth sports.  Many of those youth are being coached by their own parent. Although this phenomenon is commonplace, little research has been done to study how parent-coaches balance their dual roles.  To better understand communication, roles, and relationship dynamics in youth sports environments, this study examined the experiences of parent-coaches and their athlete children. There were two ethnographic investigations. In the first, 76 participants (34 parent-coaches and 42 child-athletes) ranging from age 8 to age 80 participated in semi-structured Zoom interviews. Personal networks and snowball sampling were used to invite …

Provocable Forgiveness In Noisy Brand--Consumer Systems:An Agent-Based Study Of Repeated Interaction, Tahere Ahmadiyan, Hamidreza Navidi, Behbod Keshavarzi

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Repeated brand--consumer exchange is often treated as a managerial problem of loyalty, recovery, and trust. It can also be read as a small complex system: many local decisions about cooperation, retaliation, and forgiveness accumulate into market-level selection. This study uses that perspective to examine which relational rules survive when communication is imperfect. Eight canonical Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma strategies are translated into marketing archetypes and evaluated through round-robin tournaments, a six-level noise sweep, proportional-fitness ecological dynamics, and finite-population Moran invasion tests. The tournament leaderboard is calculated without same-strategy self-play, so that reported payoffs reflect inter-archetype competition rather than homogeneous self-coordination. At …

Designing Menus That Welcome Everyone: How Inclusive Menu Cues Drive Customer Behavior For Diners With Dietary Restrictions, Cortney Norris, Lisa Slevitch, Matthew Bauman, Soyoung Park, Seung Hyun Lee

ICHRIE Research Reports

Millions of consumers navigate dietary restrictions every time they eat out, whether due to food allergies, religious practices, or lifestyle choices such as veganism. Yet most restaurant menus do little to acknowledge these needs. This report summarizes findings from a three-phase study that explored which menu design features most effectively communicate inclusivity to diners with dietary restrictions and how those features influence emotions, attitudes, and likelihood of choosing a restaurant. The results offer restaurant operators concrete, evidence-based strategies for making their menus more welcoming and, in doing so, expanding their customer base.

Are Extension Agriculture Programs Hitting Their Target With Military Veterans?, Adam Ingrao, Craig W Carpenter, Michael Lotspeich-Yadao, Charles M. Tolbert

Journal of Extension

The desire to support military veterans has led to a variety of targeted Extension programs, but the types and availability of these programs vary substantially. After reviewing the size and diversity of the U.S. veteran population, we examine one of the main USDA programs targeting veterans: the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development program. We then use matrix analysis to categorize veteran support programs across other program areas. Finally, we compare these programs with veterans' needs, as described in recently conducted veteran focus groups, and conclude by highlighting gaps and opportunities for improving Extension programming for veterans, including substantially improving program …

Case Study: Feasibility Of Creating A Simulated Mobile Data Center For Cross-Disciplinary Academic Programs, Stanley Mierzwa, Christoper J. Schultz, Iassen Christov, Michael Fagioli, Thomas Ikeda, Reinaldo Jaramillo, Giolian Sanagustin

Center for Cybersecurity

This case study examines the potential to envision, create, and deploy a simulated mobile micro data center solution that can be easily replicated and transported between locations and educational settings. The coined term for this solution is the Mobile AI-Centered Data Center (Mobile ACDC), which provides students with a platform to construct, in a hands-on fashion, such a solution and navigate the product to gain greater competencies and understanding of the components found in a data center. Instructor and student feedback assessments from the pilot classroom modules and laboratory experiential learning activities indicate that such a solution helps to improve …