Digital Commons Network^™

Digital Usage Of Indian Teleworkers In Home Settings: A Digital Inclusion Framework, Anindita Paul, Borchuluun Yadamsuren, Kim M. Thompson

Faculty Publications

This research focuses on ICT adoption and digital use by teleworkers operating from their homes during the pandemic in India. A two-phase mixed-method approach is used: Phase 1 involved in-depth interviews with three individuals during the pandemic, findings from which were used along with the Factors Affecting Digital Inclusion (FDI) model (Thompson & Paul, 2020) to develop the survey instrument for Phase 2. This survey was distributed to professionals via listservs, and the FDI model was subsequently utilized to analyze the survey responses. The study’s findings highlighted multiple factors related to digital inclusion among teleworkers that could impact work productivity. …

Did I Buy The Right Gadget? A Methodological Replication Study, Paul A. Weisgarber, Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey L. Jenkins

Faculty Publications

This study is a methodological replication of Valacich et al.’s (2018) experiment, which investigated the evaluability hypothesis in the context of technology product assessment. The evaluability hypothesis suggests that the evaluation context significantly influences how users assess and perceive technology features. More specifically, it posits that the perception of technology features, as well as the ultimate selection of a technology product, is likely to differ depending on whether a single technology is evaluated in isolation or multiple technologies are evaluated simultaneously. Our replication study consisted of 310 participants who evaluated two wireless internet products with two product features – connection …

Alterity As A Mirror Of Identity: Primo Levi’S Self Representation In Other People’S Trades, Ilona Klein

Faculty Publications

Primo Levi reveals much about himself in the fifty-one short essays of L’altrui mestiere (Other People’s Trades). This study analyzes L’altrui mestiere as the awareness of the “self” through the observation of “otherness” — other people, but also other living beings which are not human (mammalian animals and insects), others as minerals, and others as hypotheses, theories, writings, microcosmic or macrocosmic conceptions that Levi uses to weave a discourse of “alterity” as a mirror of “identity.” L’altrui mestiere’s narrative pattern revolves around contrasts and comparisons between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the canny and the uncanny, the …

Distribution: Understanding Customer-Facing Logistics In Africa, Emmanuel T. Kodzi

Faculty Publications

Companies seeking to do business in Africa often focus more on challenges they need to address, rather than opportunities presented to them. The need to manage their investments across diverse countries, population profiles, infrastructure development levels, and local capabilities is viewed in terms of complexity. However, improved situational understanding will better inform investment decisions regarding product movements among points of origin, production, and consumption. Several aspects of logistics may be considered in this regard, but we focus on customer-facing logistics. We assume that few companies have the capability and resources to both produce and deliver products to end-buyers in a …

Detecting Social Desirability Bias With Human-Computer Interaction: A Mouse-Tracking Study, Paul A. Weisgarber, Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, David Kim, Manasvi Kumar

Faculty Publications

Social desirability bias undermines self-report accuracy, necessitating novel approaches to detect and mitigate its impact. This study aimed to investigate the influence of social desirability on questionnaire responses by analyzing mouse cursor movements and answering behaviors. Respondents (n=238) completed a health and wellness questionnaire while their mouse cursor data was recorded. The results revealed that individuals under a higher social desirability treatment exhibited significantly longer response times and slower mouse cursor speeds, supporting the hypothesis that they may engage in more cautious and deliberate responding. However, no significant differences were found in terms of mouse cursor deviations or answer switches …

Regulating Gender Diversity: Evidence From California Senate Bill 826, Abigail Allen, Aida Wahid

Faculty Publications

Do gender diversity quotas enhance firm value? This broad question has sparked significant debate because while diversity is generally thought to improve board functioning, prior research in international settings suggests mandating diversity may have adverse consequences if it moves firms away from market equilibrium. Exploiting the political events leading up to the passage of California Senate Bill 826 as an exogenous shock to assess the market implications of board gender composition, we document either significantly positive or insignificant 2-day abnormal returns for California firms across a variety of model specifications. Importantly, this finding contradicts the strong claims of contemporary studies …

Is It All Hype? Chatgpt’S Performance And Disruptive Potential In The Accounting And Auditing Industries, Marc Eulerich, Aida Sanatizadeh, Hamid Vakilzadeh, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

ChatGPT frequently appears in the media, with many predicting significant disruptions, especially in the fields of accounting and auditing. Yet research has demonstrated relatively poor performance of ChatGPT on student assessment questions. We extend this research to examine whether more recent ChatGPT models and capabilities can pass major accounting certification exams including the Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Enrolled Agent (EA) certification exams. We find that the ChatGPT 3.5 model cannot pass any exam (average score across all assessments of 53.1%). However, with additional enhancements, ChatGPT can pass all sections of each …

Anomaly Time, Boone Bowles, Adam V. Reed, Matthew C. Ringgenberg, Jacob Thornock

Faculty Publications

We examine the timing of returns around the publication of anomaly trading signals. Using a database that captures when information is first publicly released, we show that anomaly returns are concentrated in the first month after information release dates, and these returns decay soon thereafter. We also show that the academic convention of forming portfolios in June underestimates predictability because it uses stale information, which makes some anomalies appear insignificant. In contrast, we show many anomalies do predict returns if portfolios are formed immediately after information releases. Finally, we develop guidance on forming portfolios without using stale information.

Ifn-𝜸 And Il-10 Immunosensor With Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Interdigitated Electrodes Toward Pen-Side Cattle Paratuberculosis Monitoring, Shaowei Ding, Benjamin J. Brownlee, Kshama Parate, Cicero C. Pola, Bolin Chen, Jesse M. Hostetter, Douglas Jones, John Jackman, Brian D. Iverson, Jonathan C. Claussen

Faculty Publications

Highly sensitive vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays (VANTAs) interdigitated electrode (IDE) arrays are developed for electrochemical biosensing of two cytokines (i.e., interleukin-10 (IL-10) and interferon-gamma (IFN-𝜸)) that are useful for early detection Johne’s disease (Bovine Paratuberculosis) in cattle. The high aspect ratio VANTA-IDEs (50–60 μm in height) are grown through a chemical vapor deposition process from an iron (Fe) catalyst that is lithographically patterned on a silicon wafer with equal finger width and inter-finger spacing of 25 μm. After functionalization with distinct antibodies the VANTA-IDEs are capable of selective detection of both IL-10 and IFN-𝜸 within an actual biological matrix …

Leveraging Compliance To Design A Minimally Invasive, Expandable Interbody Cage Capable Of Customized Anatomical Fit For Spinal Fusion Surgery, Larry L. Howell, Daniel J. Orr, Anton E. Bowden, Christian Payne, Hailey Jones, Bruce M. Frankel, James Anderson, Alek Sperry, Brandon Sargent

Faculty Publications

As spinal fusion surgery continues to transition to less invasive techniques, there remains an unmet need for ever smaller and more complex interbody cages to meet the unique needs of this difficult surgery. This work focuses on the hypothesis that this need can be met using the inherent advantages of compliant mechanisms in a way no previous device has. Deployable Euler Spiral Connectors optimized using a gradient based optimization algorithm were used as the foundation for a device that can stow to a very small size for device insertion then bilaterally deploy to a substantially larger device footprint. Additionally, a …

Do Audit Partners Exhibit Hometown Bias?, Yuzhou Chen, Timothy Seidel, Aleksandra "Ally" B. Zimmerman

Faculty Publications

We investigate whether audit partners exhibit greater leniency towards audit clients located in their childhood or pre-professional home state. While prior research has examined the audit quality effects of geographic distance between an auditor and client as well as auditors’ social ties to company management or directors, this study uniquely examines auditors’ psychological affinity to places rather than people. Using hand-collected data on audit partners, company managers, and directors, we find evidence of partners exhibiting hometown bias in the form of greater leniency towards clients’ opportunistic reporting. However, we find no evidence to suggest that these psychological biases affect audit …

Strategic Alignment, Performance, And The Moderating Effect Of Regulatory Fit, Hayden T. Gunnell, Steven D. Smith, Travis W. Steadman

Faculty Publications

We examine how the alignment of performance measurement and strategy affects performance on a multidimensional task. Our experiment varies both the strategy (speed versus accuracy) of the hypothetical firm for which participants work and the individual performance measure that is reported to them, creating two conditions of clear alignment and two of clear misalignment. We find that while workers are responsive to the performance measure regardless of its alignment, they are also sensitive to the strategy such that costly alignment effects are observed. We also predict and find that workers respond asymmetrically to misalignment in accuracy performance but not in …

The Effects Of Strategic Alignment And Strategic Clarity On Multidimensional Task Performance, Steven D. Smith, Tyler F. Thomas

Faculty Publications

The alignment of a firm’s performance measures with its strategic objectives is fundamental to effective management control, at least in part because performance measures and stated strategy represent separate sources of information that workers can rely on to guide their efforts. We experimentally examine the effects of strategic alignment and strategic clarity (i.e., the specificity with which strategic objectives are communicated) on workers’ performance on a multidimensional task. We predict and find that alignment improves performance under a vague strategy statement but impairs performance under a clear strategy statement. These results are consistent with strategic clarity and performance measure alignment …

Effects Of Cognitive And Social Demands On Linguistic Production For People With Moderate, Mild, Or No Aphasia, Tyson G. Harmon, Emily Mcdonald, Kyle Steele

Faculty Publications

Background: Most everyday communication occurs in situations where cognitive and social demands are present. These types of situations may compound language deficits for people with aphasia (PWA). An understanding of the language interference that may occur from cognitive and social demands is an important precursor for assessment and intervention that addresses everyday communication situations.

Aims: To determine how cognitively and socially demanding conditions affect micro- and macrolinguistic production for people with moderate, mild, or no aphasia during narrative discourse and to compare effects among groups.

Method: Thirty participants with mild (n = 9), moderate (n = 9), or no (n …

Drop Retention And Departure In Adiabatic Shear Flow On Structured Superhydrophobic Surfaces, Blake M. Lyons, Daniel Maynes, Julie Crockett, Brian D. Iverson

Faculty Publications

Drops are retained or held on surfaces due to a retention force exerted on the drop by the surface. This retention force is a function of the surface tension of the liquid, drop geometry, and the contact angle between the drop and the surface. When external or body forces exceed the retention force, the drop begins to move. This work explores the conditions for which drop departure occurs on structured superhydrophobic surfaces in the presence of an applied shear flow. Drop departure is explored for five microstructured superhydrophobic surfaces, one nanostructured carbon nanotube surface and one smooth hydrophobic surface. Surface …

Learning From Secondary Blended Teaching Practitioners: Selecting Activities And Connecting In-Person And Online Learning, Michelle Jensen, Charles R. Graham, Cecil R. Short

Faculty Publications

Implementation of blended teaching (BT) practices is increasing rapidly in K-12 classrooms. This trend creates an urgent need for professional development to support BT. An understanding of how experienced teachers implement BT can inform teacher educators and professional development leaders as they develop training to support this practice. We interviewed 24 secondary educators implementing BT strategies to determine what activities they include in the online space and how they connect them to in-person learning. Qualitative thematic analysis of the interviews revealed that experienced blended teachers used a variety of online activities, providing opportunities for learners to interact with content, other …

Academic Communities Of Engagement: Exploring The Impact Of Online And In‑Person Support Communities On The Academic Engagement Of Online Learners, Kristian J. Spring, Charles R. Graham, Courtney N. Hanny, Sara Tuiloma, Kamal Badar

Faculty Publications

Institutions of higher education are interested in supporting the academic success of their students in the most effective ways possible. Increasingly, this means engaging students in a blend of both online and in-person learning activities as well as connecting students with supportive communities in both modalities. This research explores the efforts of an institution that is trying to create positive post-secondary learning experiences for thousands of adults who have experienced significant barriers to accessing higher education through traditional routes. Students around the world are supported through both online and local, in-person communities created to support their academic engagement. In this …

The Impact Of Chief Audit Executive Turnover In Taiwan, Kenneth L. Bills, Hua-Wei Huang, Yi-Hung Lin, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

This study adds to the emerging body of research showing the importance of internal audit to improve corporate governance and firm performance. Specifically, we test how the market reacts to the announcement of a turnover to the head of internal audit (i.e., the chief audit executive (CAE)). We find negative cumulative abnormal returns in the days surrounding the announcement of a CAE turnover and that the market holds a relatively negative perception of CAE turnover regardless of the reasons for the turnover event. We then study two reasons for why the market would react negatively to the CAE turnover and …

A Demonstration Of How Chatgpt Can Be Used In The Internal Auditing Process, Marc Eulerich, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

For the past several years, internal audit functions (IAFs) have been significantly increasing their digitization efforts to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the IAF. The introduction of ChatGPT has increased the potential for IAFs to have a more significant impact; however, there is little guidance on how ChatGPT can influence the day-to-day work of internal auditors. This paper demonstrates with specific examples how ChatGPT can be used to enhance all aspects of the audit process. While not comprehensive in nature, the detailed, illustrative examples should help internal auditors see actionable steps they can take to be more efficient and …

Chatbots Mitigate Help-Seeking Avoidance, James Gaskin, Eva Blondeel, Ryan Schuetzler, Rachel Serre, Jacob Steffen, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

This research explores the transformative role of large language model (LLM) chatbots in fostering help-seeking behaviors among introverted and underrepresented students in educational settings. Despite the importance of help-seeking for academic success, certain groups exhibit avoidance behaviors due to self-presentation concerns and stereotype threats. By integrating LLM chatbots as non-judgmental, anonymous teaching assistants in an introductory information systems course, the study demonstrates how technology can mitigate these behaviors and promote inclusivity. The chatbots provided real-time, unbiased support, significantly enhancing the students' willingness to engage in help-seeking behaviors without fear of judgment. This practical application of chatbots not only supports academic …

Gauging Scholarly Engagement: An Investigation Into Topic Popularity Within The Asee Cit Division, Barry M. Lunt, Mudasser Fraz Wyne, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Since 2011, the Computing and Information Technology (CIT) division of the ASEE has had 427 papers presented and published in the proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. This paper looks at these 427 papers as a whole, providing descriptive statistics, giving the top institutions and authors that have contributed to these papers, and providing information regarding the impact of the top ten papers, as measured by their citations and downloads. We have also used the ChatGPT version 4.0 to provide categories for the 427 papers, providing insight into the most popular topics for papers in the CIT division.

Assessing Virtual Reality’S Influence On Honesty In Reporting, Jeffrey Pickerd, Nathan Waddoups, David A. Wood, Xiaomei (Grazia) Xiong

Faculty Publications

Organizations, businesses, and society are exploring and adopting virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). VR is expected to boost the global economy by $1.5 trillion by 2030. In this study, we focus on the effect of VR on an important accounting variable—reporting honesty. We examine reporting honesty across two tasks, various measures, and various populations, that are commonly used in existing research. In our initial experiment, participants misreported more in a dice rolling task when performing it in a VR setting than in a non-VR setting. However, in a second and third experiment attempting to replicate and extend our …

Reassessing Assurance In An Automated World: Insights From Board Members, Executives, And Internal Auditors, Scott Emett, Marc Eulerich, Jeffrey Pickerd, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Technological advances that automate work continue to transform the accounting profession. We examine whether automation impacts resource allocation within the internal audit function (IAF), a unique setting that allows us to compare demand for assurance activities with demand for consulting activities. We conduct an experiment in which experienced board members, executives, and internal auditors make budget recommendations for a company’s IAF that developed automations that improved the efficiency of the IAF. Results show that across all groups, participants respond to these efficiencies by decreasing the IAF’s total budget but retaining the productive capacity of the IAF. The budget cuts are …

Aerosol Jet Printing Of Surface Acoustic Wave Microfluidic Devices, Joseph Rich, Brian Cole, Teng Li, Brandon Lu, Hanyu Fu, Brittany N. Smith, Jianping Xia, Shujie Yang, Ruoyu Zhong, James L. Doherty, Kanji Kaneko, Hiroaki Suzuki, Zhenhua Tian, Aaron D. Franklin, Tony Jun Huang

Faculty Publications

The addition of surface acoustic wave (SAW) technologies to microfluidics has greatly advanced lab-on-a-chip applications due to their unique and powerful attributes, including high-precision manipulation, versatility, integrability, biocompatibility, contactless nature, and rapid actuation. However, the development of SAW microfluidic devices is limited by complex and time-consuming micro/nanofabrication techniques and access to cleanroom facilities for multistep photolithography and vacuum-based processing. To simplify the fabrication of SAW microfluidic devices with customizable dimensions and functions, we utilized the additive manufacturing technique of aerosol jet printing. We successfully fabricated customized SAW microfluidic devices of varying materials, including silver nanowires, graphene, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate …

Disclosure Benchmarking By Lawyers: Evidence Fromthe Ipo Setting, Michael S. Drake, Jeff Mcmullin, Kenneth Merkley, Chase Potter, John Treu

Faculty Publications

Lawyers play an important advisory role in drafting financial reports, yet empirical evidence documenting the influence of external legal counsel on this process remains sparse. This study focuses on a specific aspect of lawyers’ drafting process: the practice of reviewing disclosures previously filed by other issuers—a practice termed “disclosure benchmarking.” Using initial public offering (IPO) disclosures as the setting, we find that disclosure benchmarking is associated with amore efficient Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) review process. We further find that it is associated with several measures of disclosure quality, including disclosures that are less likely to be revised in subsequent …

Traditional Investment Research And Social Networks: Evidence From Facebook Connections, Travis Dyer, Gerrit Köchling, Peter Limbach

Faculty Publications

We show that investors acquire more public information about firms to which they are more socially proximate. On average, a standard deviation increase in the Social Connectedness Index (Bailey et al., 2018) between a firm’s headquarter county and a searcher county is associated with 30% more EDGAR filing downloads from the searcher county. The effect of social proximity on traditional investment research is distinct from the effect of geographic proximity. We find similar results studying headquarter relocations, investor-level data, and EDGAR downloads from European regions, for which physical distance should be irrelevant. Social proximity matters more during times of high …

The General Anti-Avoidance Rule, Mary Cowx, Jon Kerr

Faculty Publications

The general anti-avoidance rule, or GAAR, is an enforcement mechanism that gives a country’s taxing authority broad power to deny a taxpayer tax benefits associated with any transaction. Although GAARs are becoming increasingly common, the presence of a GAAR is generally overlooked by researchers and thus has been left unstudied. In this paper, we provide an initial investigation by studying the effect of GAARs on firm-level corporate tax avoidance behaviors. Using an indicator for the enactment or strengthening of a GAAR within a country in a stacked difference-in-differences design, we find GAAR enactment is associated with a statistically and economically …

Religion And Lgbtq Suicidality: A Systematic Review, Michael A. Goodman

Faculty Publications

Studies have consistently shown that LGBTQ individuals are at increased risk for several mental and physical health challenges including suicidality. The relationship between religion and LGBTQ wellbeing in general and LGBTQ suicidality in specific has increasingly been the subject of scholarly investigation. This systematic review examines all peer-reviewed articles included in the EBSCO PsychInfo database since 2000 (49 studies in all). These studies reveal a complex relationship which is both nuanced and at times contradictory. The majority of studies (65%) found at least one religiosity related predictor to be a risk factor for LGBTQ suicidality, 53% found at least one …

Empowering Causal Machine Learning For Large-Scale Manufacturing Pipelines With Knowledge Graphs, Yuxin Zi, Cory Henson, Amit P. Sheth

Faculty Publications

Understanding causal relations within manufacturing pipelines is crucial for key manufacturing tasks such as anomaly detection and root cause analysis. However, existing causal machine learning (causal ML) approaches struggle to scale effectively to the vast number of variables present in manufacturing settings. We advocate for incorporating domain knowledge within the manufacturing pipelines, represented as knowledge graphs (KGs), for designing causal ML methods for large-scale manufacturing problems. Knowledge graphs can encode rich contextual information about the interactions and dependencies between different components and stages of the manufacturing pipeline, providing a structured framework to guide the discovery of causal relationships. By incorporating …

‘Routines’ And ‘Formulaic Language’ In Conversation Analysis (Author's Extended Data), Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

Though the field of conversation analysis (CA) was founded upon examinations of interactional “routines” such as conversation openings and closings, conceptualizing and categorizing communicative phenomena as “formulaic” is anathema to CA. This chapter details how, since its inception, CA work has empirically elucidated how participants to recorded episodes of naturally occurring social interaction actively and collaboratively accomplish conversational activities as ‘routine’ or not by selecting from available action alternatives, spontaneously coordinating their selections vis-à-vis one another. Taking a multimodal CA approach, this chapter reviews state-of-the art literature on how people open and close in-person and telephone conversations, showing the immense …