Business Commons^™

The Effect Of Family Ownership On The Relation Between Executive Compensation And Performance: Evidence From Thailand, Thomas J. Connelly, Piman Limpaphayom, Michael J. Sullivan

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigates the pay-performance relation for directors and managers in a sample of Thai public companies. It is hypothesized that family ownership mediates the pay-performance relations for directors and managers. The results show a strong link between managerial compensation and firm performance only for firms with low levels of family ownership. Conversely, there is a strong link between director compensation and firm performance only for firms with high levels of family ownership. The findings indicate that the relation between executive compensation and firm performance is more complex than previously documented.

Effects Of Top-Performer Rewards On Fellow Salespeople: A Double-Edged Sword, C. Fred Miao, Kenneth R. Evans, Pochien Li

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rewarding top performers is of strategic importance to the sales organization. Top-performing salespeople not only contribute significantly to the success of their firm but may also motivate the skill development of peer salespeople. However, both academic research and anecdotal evidence suggest that top performer rewards can boomerang by damaging peer salespeople's morale and productivity, although the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions remain unclear. Using a sample of salespeople and their managers from financial investment firms in Taiwan, the authors uncover both positive and negative effects of top-performer rewards. Specifically, it is found that when behavior control is employed, top-performer rewards …

Wine Tasting Room, Touraj Goudarznia, Kyle Kniffin, Ali Alkhafaji

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The Purpose of this project is to renovate an abandon building already located on the CPI winery property and turn it into a wine tasting room. The CPI winery, located right here in the Willamette valley has been bottling and selling wine to the general public for the past five years. They have built a loyal customer base all around the country but look to expand their footprint by opening a brand new tasting room. 52 days after the approval from the owner of the winery to move forward with the project CPI wines will be celebrating a news year’s …

Implications In Implementing Self-Managed Teams In Organizations, Aayushi Gupta, Alex Tacco Melendez, Janet Rosenthal, Lipishree Vrushabhendra

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Over the past few decades, organizations have developed workplace teams that are multi-faceted, diverse and classified or divided by objective. These teams are essentially turning out to be instrumental in innovation and change in organizations. One such work team that has evoked interest in the recent past is the self-managed team. The design, structure and performance of self-managed teams varies from the other teams significantly. Nevertheless, these teams like the other workplace teams share common benefits such as increased knowledge and skills, synergy and commitment. The main difference lies in the way these teams work. The objective of this research …

Optimizing Distributed Energy Resources On A Distribution Feeder, Bill Henry, Stephen Macdonald, Nicole Wehner, Gabe Mcbride, Tyler Groth

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The purpose of this study is to optimize a set of distributed energy resources (DERs) on an electric utility distribution level feeder. A DER is a decentralized resource, usually located at end-use electric utility customer sites, that stores or generates electricity – such as batteries and rooftop photovoltaic solar, or in the case of demand response, in which the utility has the ability to manage electricity consumption to the benefit of distribution grid operation. The aggregation and optimization of a set of DERs of disparate operating characteristics, over a period of three years is performed and the methods employed explained. …

Assessment Of Minimum Viable Product Techniques: A Literature Review, Mohammadsaleh Saadatmand

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Although the minimum viable product (MVP) concept provides a means to test ideas and hypothesis at early stages, it does not indicate that it is easy to build. MVP tests whether your idea solves a real problem that customers are willing to pay for. In order to reach the stage of building a product that people want to use and pay for, we need to make sure product passes certain tests. In turn, MVP techniques/methods are designed not only to test technical questions about the product, but also to assess the viability of business model hypothesis. Once the hypothesis that …

A Simulation For Managing Complexity In Sales And Operations Planning Decisions, Scott Duhadway, David Dreyfus

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Within the classroom it is often difficult to convey the complexities and intricacies that go into making sales and operations planning decisions. This article describes an in‐class simulation that allows students to gain hands‐on experience with the complexities in making forecasting, inventory, and supplier selection decisions as part of the sales and operations planning process. The activity may be run during one class period and is flexible enough to accommodate almost any class size. During the simulation, students may apply forecasting techniques, inventory management concepts, and supplier selection processes, while experiencing the effects of supply chain disruptions. This simulation is …

Virtual Teams : Boon Or Bane?, Krishna Priya Muraleedharan, Satvik Vishnubhatta, Smitha Mandhani, Unmesh Deodhar

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

A virtual team is a group of people who work together across time, space and organizational boundaries.Virtual teams came into existence as the work expertise is distributed globally and it provides more flexibility to the employees. The members of a virtual team have varied skills and they work towards achieving a common goal.

To explain the challenges faced by virtual teams we have studied research papers and case study for whom the only economically and practically means of communication was asynchronous and synchronous computer-mediated communication. This research paper highlights the challenges of making and keeping trust in a virtual team …

Dilemmas In Not Invented Here Syndrome, Surekha Chanamolu, Shihab Hanayneh, Lennae Misiewicz, Marthed Mohammed, Jacqueline Nayame

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Not Invented Here syndrome has many negative effects on the performance of companies. However, there are several ways companies can work to overcome NIH syndrome. Some of the most important aspects when it comes to identifying and overcoming NIH syndrome include performance and communication, optimal performance and tenure, the absorptive capacity paradox, intra-organizational communication, experience with external knowledge, and poorly balanced incentive systems. NIH syndrome typically begins when a company feels that their identity is threatened and therefore they reject information from other companies or organizations. The focus of this paper is to address the manifestations, causes, and consequences of …

Optimizing Student Workforce Scheduling At Psu Office Of Information Technology (Oit), Agam Ebramsyah, Aishwarya Joy, Cody Miller, Jake Stevens, Priyanka Patil

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

A significant challenge for businesses of any size, is generating a work schedule that ensures adequate personnel coverage to ensure all aspects of the business are properly staffed, while preventing waste produced from having an excess number of employees working at a given time. The decision to manually create spreadsheets and work schedules that take into account availability, staffing requirements, and cost efficiency can become overwhelming and labor intensive. For Portland State University's Office of Information Technology (OIT), there is a significant challenge in scheduling student workers, while ensuring staffing requirements are met, student work hour restrictions are observed, and …

Organics To You - Optimization Of Produce Bins, Rassaniya Lerdphayakkarat, Chuan Chieh Lu, Jon Roschke, Juliana Suzuki, Jessie Truong

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Organics to You (www.organicstoyou.org ) is a produce delivery company that focuses on bringing organic local food from local farms straight to the homes, schools, and businesses of its clients. Each week a "Small Bin" is created using different varieties of local produce from various farms. Customers receive a bin that contains 12-14 varieties of produce with 2-6 "servings" of each variety (e.g., 1 melon, 4 apples, 1 head of lettuce, 2 lbs potatoes, etc).

Our objective is to optimize the contents of the “Small Bin”. The decision we want to make is how much of each variety do …

Effects Of Work-Family Interface Conflicts On Salesperson Behaviors: A Double-Edged Sword, C. Fred Miao, Guangping Wang

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Work–family interface conflicts have typically been cast in a negative light due to their detrimental consequences. This study offers new insights by uncovering conditions under which such conflicts may produce both positive and negative effects on salesperson job-related behaviors in the context of B2B sales. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory as an overarching theoretical framework, the authors suggest that informal controls (i.e., professional control and self-control) have differential moderating effects in salespeople’s primary and secondary appraisal processes when faced with work–family conflict and family–work conflict. Dyadic data from a matched salesperson–customer sample reveals that professional control amplifies, whereas self-control mitigates, …

The Dynamics Of Open Strategy: From Adoption To Reversion, Melissa M. Appleyard, Henry W. Chesbrough

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Innovation has become more open in recent years. Yet the decision to become more open and the challenge of sustaining that openness are not well understood. This is the concern of the “content” branch of Open Strategy, defined as the branch that addresses an organization's open innovation strategy. We examine the initial motivations to adopt an open strategy, and then consider when organizations choose to maintain that open strategy or revert to a more proprietary approach. Similarly, we examine motivations to open up a previously proprietary strategy. We find that these dynamics depend on the organization's desire to either foster …

Big Data Analytics For A Sustained Competitive Advantage, Nayem Rahman

Student Research Symposium

Achieving a sustained competitive advantage in the industry is vital for a firm’s long-term survival. Big data has been mentioned as a powerful competitive tool in the literature. This study examines the influence of big data analytics in achieving competitive advantage by a firm in its business operations. From a competitive advantage standpoint, big data analytics capability has implications for three key resources such as big data technology, big data technical skills, and data scientist skills. In this presentation we provide an overview of big data analytics in terms of resource-based view of the firm. Based on resource-based theory, we …

Institutional Sustainable Purchasing Priorities: Stakeholder Perceptions Vs Environmental Reality, Madeleine Pullman, Robin Wikoff

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose This purpose of this paper is to understand the environmental impacts of stakeholder-driven sustainable purchasing policies in institutional settings. Design/methodology/approach The research is framed using stakeholder and life cycle assessment (LCA) theories. The study uses a multi-method approach. Starting with interviews to understand the breadth of sustainability issues and significant food purchases facing institutional purchasing managers, the authors subsequently perform LCA of these various policies using the most popular food item in different categories. Findings From the interview results, the authors found that food purchasers focus predominately on cost, thus, are committed to food and packaging reduction. They are …

From Climbing Walls To A Culture Of Caring, Kirk Kelly, Brenna Miaira Kutch

Office of Information Technology Publications and Presentations

Ultimately, creating a culture of caring will make the difference between paying employees to work for the organization and having them get up in the morning wanting to work for the organization. Staff will be more engaged, more committed, and more productive, will encourage others, and will live longer lives. Caring can't be faked. While this article has mentioned many ways to focus on a culture of caring, caring is not a list of boxes to check off. It is never "finished." Training people to genuinely care is difficult to do, so organizational leaders must keep this attribute in mind, …

Sequential: Sustainability And Growth In The Biofuels Business, Dave Garten, Jacen Greene, Carolyn Niehaus, Devdeep Aikath

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

SeQuential, a vertically-integrated biodiesel company based in Portland, Oregon, pursued a more sustainable supply and production strategy than many competitors by securing inputs from used cooking oil (UCO) rather than new crops. A fragmented U.S. biodiesel industry produced more than 1.25 billion gallons of the fuel in 2016 from a mix of virgin materials and UCO, but the environmental impact of crop-based biodiesel was increasingly controversial. Meanwhile, UCO collection had grown rapidly in recent years, and with strong forecasted growth, offered a potential additional revenue stream for vertically-integrated biodiesel firms.

The price of the UCO used to produce SeQuential’s biodiesel …

Why Do Smes Go Green? An Analysis Of Wine Firms In South Africa, Ralph Hamann, James Smith, Peter Tashman, R. Scott Marshall

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies on why small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engage in pro-environmental behavior suggest that managers’ environmental responsibility plays a relatively greater role than competitiveness and legitimacy-seeking. These categories of drivers are mostly considered independent of each other. Using survey data and comparative case studies of wine firms in South Africa, this study finds that managers’ environmental responsibility is indeed the key driver in a context where state regulation hardly plays any role in regulating dispersed, rural firms. However, especially proactive firms are also characterized by expectations of competitiveness gains. The authors thus emphasize the role of institutional context and potential …

Converging Winds: Logic Hybridization In The Colorado Wind Energy Field, Jeffrey G. York, Timothy J. Hargrave, Desirée F. Pacheco

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explores the hybridization of field-level logics, a process that integrates previously incompatible logics within an organizational field. Through an inductive study of the wind energy field in Colorado, we find that logic hybridization resulted when social movement organizations, incumbent firms, and policy makers variously responded to incompatibility between economizing and ecologizing logics. Compromise and framing efforts catalyzed social movements to alter the balance of power in the field, which transformed the relationship between field logics. Hybrid organizations then emerged to establish, legitimize, and embed a new set of inter-linked frames, practices, and arrangements that integrated previously incompatible logics. …

The Influence Of Guilt Cognitions On Taxpayers’ Voluntary Disclosures, Jonathan Farrar, Cass Hausserman, Paul Dunn

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Guilt is a powerful emotion that is known to influence ethical decision-making. Nevertheless, the role of guilt cognitions in influencing restorative behaviour following an unethical action is not well understood. Guilt cognitions are interrelated beliefs about an individual’s role in a negative event. We experimentally investigate the joint impact of three guilt cognitions – responsibility for a decision, justification for a decision, and foreseeability of consequences – on a taxpayer’s decision to make a tax amnesty disclosure. Tax amnesties encourage delinquent taxpayers to self-correct to avoid severe penalties that would result if their tax evasion were discovered. Our findings suggest …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Procedural Fairness Perceptions In Personnel Selection: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study, Udo Konradt, Yvonne Garbers, Martina Böge, Berrin Erdogan, Talya N. Bauer

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on Gilliland’s (1993) selection fairness framework, we examined antecedents and behavioral effects of applicant procedural fairness perceptions before, during, and after a personnel selection procedure using a six-wave longitudinal research design. Results showed that both perceived post-test fairness and pre-feedback fairness perceptions are related to job offer acceptance and job performance after 18 months, but not to job performance after 36 months. Pre-test and post-test procedural fairness perceptions were mainly related to formal characteristics and interpersonal treatment, whereas pre-feedback fairness perceptions were related to formal characteristics and explanations. The impact of fairness attributes of formal characteristics and interpersonal treatment …

Friends Of The Children: Strategies For Scaling Impact, Jacen Greene, Nicki Yechin Lee, Eric Nelsen

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Friends of the Children, a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, was founded in 1993 by retired entrepreneur Duncan Campbell to serve youth at the highest risk of teen parenting, incarceration, or dropping out of school. Each youth client was matched with a paid mentor from first grade through the end of high school. The costs of this intervention were high, but the outcomes were extremely impressive in each of the three risk areas. The total benefits to society of Friends of the Children’s intervention was estimated at $7 for every $1 spent on the program.

In the United States alone, …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Extrinsic And Intrinsic Motivations In Tax Amnesty Decision-Making, Jonathan Farrar, Cass Hausserman

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

The tax compliance literature on tax amnesties does not explicitly consider the underlying motivational influences on taxpayers’ self-correction decisions. Extant tax amnesty studies imply that extrinsic motives are the basis for self-correction, and only a few consider intrinsic motives (Rechberger, Hartner, Kirchler & Hämmerle, 2010; Torgler & Schaltegger, 2005). Consequently, we explore how extrinsic and intrinsic motives affect tax amnesty decision-making, following an unintentional taxpayer error. We conduct a quasi-experimental conjoint analysis on 1,266 taxpayers and vary the error magnitude. Results indicate that when taxpayers contemplate making a tax amnesty disclosure, desire to avoid a penalty is the most influential …

Hopworks Urban Brewery: A Case Of Sustainable Beer, Madeleine E. Pullman, Jacen Greene, Devin Liebmann, Nga Ho, Xan Pedisich

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

About the Related Video

Hopworks Urban Brewing: A Case of Sustainable Beer, Interview with Christian Ettinger

About the Case Study

Founded in 2007 in Portland, Oregon, Hopworks Urban Brewery is a sustainability-focused brewpub that produces certified organic beer. The State of Oregon is the second largest producer of hops, a main ingredient in beer, in the United States, and also has more craft breweries per capita than any other state. The metro area of Portland, home to over 2 million people, has over 84 craft breweries within its borders.

The craft brewing industry has grown rapidly in the United States …

Exploring Strategic Strengths And Weaknesses Of Retail Purchasing Groups, Erik Sandberg, Carlos Mena

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Retail purchasing groups consist of small, independent, specialised stores that join together and collaborate on purchasing and other areas. In comparison to large-scale corporate retail chains, often labelled mega-retailers, retail purchasing groups are based on collaborative external integration between a central unit and the independent, local dealers. The overall purpose of this research is to explore the specific characteristics that underscore a retail purchasing group. The paper has two research questions: (1) What are the strengths and weaknesses of a supply chain structure based on external integration? and (2) In what areas are the purchasing groups' ownership structure particularly advantageous …

Green Index: Integration Of Environmental Performance, Green Innovativeness And Financial Performance, Ilknur Mary Joy Nirmala Tekin

Dissertations and Theses

The integration of sustainability performance of companies is becoming increasingly important. The recent global requirements (i.e. the Kyoto Protocol) for significant reduction of the negative impact of companies on the environment over the next 6 years have been putting pressure on the companies, requiring them to lower the negative environmental impact of market performance. This requirement challenges the profitable growth of the companies' business functions, given the change needed for business operations to improve on their environmental impact.

In this dissertation a new corporate sustainability performance index, called: The Green Index, for measuring and assessing the integrated sustainability performance of …

Clean Water Grow: Go Or No Go?, Simon Ngawhika, Scott Marshall

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

The $43 billion US wastewater treatment industry is a landscape in which the high costs of capital construction and the need for economies of scale feature prominently. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that between 2004 and 2024, over $200 billion will need to be spent upgrading and expanding America’s wastewater infrastructure.

One significant challenge in maintaining treatment infrastructure is the build-up of struvite. Struvite accumulates inside treatment facility pipe networks, reducing capacity and increasing operating and maintenance costs. But discharging the components of struvite – the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous – into the environment also has negative consequences. Concentrated …

The Impacts Of Change In Governance On Faculty And Staff At Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study Of Ohsu, Dana L. Director

Dissertations and Theses

In the early 1990s, Oregon Health and Science University leadership examined the political and economic landscape and determined it needed a new operational model to survive and thrive. In 1995 OHSU separated from the state higher education system and became a public corporation, with goals of increased efficiency, customer-focus, ability to attract world-class researchers and physicians, and salaries commensurate with an urban academic health center.

This research examines the internal impacts when universities undergo significant change, using OHSU's governance change as a case study. Central is the question: what effect(s) did OHSU's decision to become a unique public corporation have …

Technology Roadmap For Tesla Motors Sedan Ev, Abrahim Abdulsater, Aparna Balasubramanian, Bing Wang, Farshad Madani, Mohammad Mansour, Rajasree Talla

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

In order for the United States, as well as other nations, to decrease their dependency and reliance on imported fossil fuel, to control and reduce the largest source of their carbon emission, and to secure their national transportation system, a faster transition from the Internal Combustion Engine to the Electric Vehicle has to be promoted. The public and private sectors will have to work hand in hand to ensure reaching such a national goal.

This paper lays out a technology roadmap for a private company ‘Tesla Motors’, proposing a balanced mixed basket of Technology Push and market Pull strategy in …

Burgerville: Instilling A Sustainable Culture, Sully Taylor, James Berg, Colin Gallison, Will Sandman, Benjamin Werner

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

From a single store to a regional chain, Burgerville has differentiated from other national chains by maintaining a strong relationship with its customers, supply partners, employees and the community. A case study from PSU's School of Business delves deeper into Burgerville's commitment to instilling a sustainability culture by assessing the impact of the company's mission to "Serve with Love." The analysis in this study covers Burgerville’s strategic changes in:

• Product development – BV's commitment in using locally and seasonally sourced ingredients throughout its menu
• Supply chain management – BV's approach to maintaining strong relationships with suppliers, and preferentially purchasing from …