Business Commons^™

Life Beyond The Like: Uses & Gratifications Of Sharing Business Facebook Page Content, Sara M. Nash

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

One of the main reasons businesses create a Facebook Page is to solidify relationships with existing customers who are Facebook users and to leverage those relationships to gain new customers. Many studies have asked Facebook users to articulate the gratifications they receive when “liking” a business Facebook Page. These studies help explain what gratifications users gain by connecting to businesses via Facebook. To expand on these findings, the current pilot study applied the uses and gratifications theory to identify Facebook users’ motivations to “share” business Facebook content within their own personal network. Understanding users’ reasons for “sharing” will help businesses …

7 Tips To Grow Your Rural Business With Purpose And Meaning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this article is to help rural entrepreneurs discover ways to grow their businesses with Living with Purpose and Meaning Megatrend.

How To Grow Your Rural Business With Purpose And Meaning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this article is to help rural entrepreneurs discover ways to grow their businesses with Living with Purpose and Meaning Megatrend.

Become A Future-Focused Leader: Use Three Megatrends To Grow Your Rural Business, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

No one can predict the future; however, rural entrepreneurs and business owners can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to shape the future of their businesses. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. This article discusses three megatrends shaping the future of rural businesses:

1) The Rise of the #GigEconomy

2) Living with Purpose and Meaning

3) The Decentralized Marketplace

The article also provides coaching tips for rural entrepreneurs on how to use megatrends to grow their businesses.

While many companies are struggling to keep up with the rapid rate of change, …

Connecting With Others Brings Business Success: Are You Engaged? A Guide To Effective Networking For Small Business Owners., Glenn Muske, Connie Hancock, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

Finding answers to your questions often starts with knowing who to call. And knowing who to call is made easier by building and maintaining an effective network.

Glenn Muske, small business specialist for North Dakota State University Extension, outlines effective ways to build your network online and in-person. Check out the Glenn’s small business guide to networking, "Effective Networking: A Key Business Success Factor," and add it to small business game plan for success!

Effective Networking: A Key Success Factor For Small Business Owners, Glenn Muske, Connie Hancock, Connie Reimers-Hild, Alyssa Dye

Community Vitality Initiative Collections

Finding answers to your questions often starts with knowing who to call. And knowing who to call is made easier by building and maintaining an effective network.

Glenn Muske, small business specialist for North Dakota State University Extension, outlines effective ways to build your network online and in-person. Check out the Glenn’s small business guide to networking, "Effective Networking: A Key Business Success Factor," and add it to small business game plan for success!

Narcissism And Leadership: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Linear And Nonlinear Relationships, Emily Grijalva, Peter D. Harms, Daniel A. Newman, Blaine H. Gaddis, R. Chris Fraley

P. D. Harms Publications

Past empirical studies relating narcissism to leadership have offered mixed results. This study integrates prior research findings via meta-analysis to make four contributions to theory on narcissism and leadership, by (a) distinguishing between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness, to reveal that narcissism displays a positive relationship with leadership emergence, but no relationship with leadership effectiveness; (b) showing narcissism’s positive effect on leadership emergence can be explained by leader extraversion; (c) demonstrating that whereas observer-reported leadership effectiveness ratings (e.g., supervisor-report, subordinate-report, and peer-report) are not related to narcissism, self-reported leadership effectiveness ratings are positively related to narcissism; and (d) illustrating that …

How Functionalist And Process Approaches To Behavior Can Explain Trait Covariation, Dustin Wood, Molly Hensler Gardner, Peter D. Harms

P. D. Harms Publications

Factors identified in investigations of trait structure (e.g., the Big Five) are sometimes understood as explanations or sources of the covariation of distinct behavioral traits, as when extraversion is suggested to underlie the covariation of assertiveness and sociability. Here, we detail how trait covariation can alternatively be understood as arising from units common to functionalist and process frameworks, such as self-efficacies, expectancies, values, and goals. Specifically, the expected covariation between two behavioral traits should be increased when a specific process variable tends to indicate the functionality of both traits simultaneously. In 2 empirical illustrations, we identify a wide array of …

Perceived Workplace Racial Discrimination And Its Correlates: A Meta-Analysis, María Del Carmen Triana, Mevan Jayasinghe, Jenna R. Pieper

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We combine the interactional model of cultural diversity (IMCD) and relative deprivation theory to examine employee outcomes of perceived workplace racial discrimination. Using 79 effect sizes from published and unpublished studies, we meta-analyze the relationships between perceived racial discrimination and several important employee outcomes that have potential implications for organizational performance. In response to calls to examine the context surrounding discrimination, we test whether the severity of these outcomes depends on changes to employment law that reflect increasing societal concern for equality and on the characteristics of those sampled. Perceived racial discrimination was negatively related to job attitudes, physical health, …

Dispersion Of Marketing Capabilities: Impact On Marketing’S Influence And Business Unit Outcomes, Michael T Krush, Ravipreet Sohi, Amit Saini

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

The marketing function of firms continues to evolve into many configurations, including the dispersion of marketing capabilities. This study evaluates the effects on the marketing function’s influence when marketing capabilities are dispersed across multiple boundaries. Using a sample of marketing executives, we study the effects of two forms of marketing capabilities dispersion: intra-organizational dispersion and inter-organizational dispersion. We examine the impact of these forms on marketing’s perceived influence within the firm. We also investigate marketing’s influence on customer responsiveness, along with three distal outcomes: marketing strategy implementation success, relationship portfolio effectiveness, and business unit performance. Our findings reveal that marketing’s …

Can Resilience Be Developed At Work? A Meta-Analytic Review Of Resilience-Building Programme Effectiveness, Adam J. Vanhove, Mitchel Herian, Alycia L. U. Perez, Peter D. Harms, Paul B. Lester

P. D. Harms Publications

Organizations have increasingly sought to adopt resilience-building programmes to prevent absenteeism, counterproductive work behaviour, and other stress-related issues. However, the effectiveness of these programmes remains unclear as a comprehensive review of existing primary evidence has not been undertaken. Using 42 independent samples across 37 studies, the present meta-analysis sought to address this limitation in the literature by summarizing the effectiveness of resilience-building programmes implemented in organizational contexts. Results demonstrated that the overall effect of such programmes was small (d = 0.21) and that programme effects diminish over time (d_proximal = 0.26 vs. d_distal = 0.07). Alternatively, …

Effects Of Psychological Capital On Mental Health And Substance Abuse, Dina V. Krasikova, Paul B. Lester, Peter D. Harms

P. D. Harms Publications

Luthans, Youssef, Sweetman, and Harms proposed a holistic approach to psychological capital that involves examining psychological capital and its effects across multiple life domains, including work, relationships, and health. This article focuses on the effects of psychological capital on objective health outcomes. Using data from a sample of 1,889 U.S. Army soldiers, we demonstrate that soldiers with higher levels of psychological capital prior to deployment were less likely to receive diagnoses for mental health problems and substance abuse postdeployment. In addition, the effects of psychological capital on mental health diagnoses were mediated by soldiers’ overall health perceptions.

Chaos, Reports, And Quests: Narrative Agency And Co-Workers In Stories Of Workplace Bullying, Stacy Tye-Williams, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examined narratives that targets of workplace bullying told about their difficult work experiences along with how co-workers were framed in these narratives. Three different narrative types emerged from their accounts: chaos, report, and quest narratives. Co-worker responses of support or lack thereof were related to the construction of various narrative forms and the level of narrative agency evident in target accounts. The study has important implications for the difference co-workers can make in a target’s ability to withstand bullying and narrate his or her experience.

The Recruitment Paradox: Network Recruitment, Structural Position, And East German Market Transition, Richard A. Benton, Steve Mcdonald, Anna Manzoni, David F. Warner

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Economic institutions structure links between labor-market informality and social stratification. The present study explores how periods of institutional change and post-socialist market transition alter network-based job finding, in particular informal recruitment. We highlight how market transitions affect both the prevalence and distribution of network-based recruitment channels: open-market environments reduce informal recruitment’s prevalence but increase its association with high wages. We test these propositions using the case of the former East Germany’s market transition and a comparison with West Germany’s more stable institutional environment. Following transition, workers in lower tiers increasingly turned toward formal intermediaries, active employee search, and socially “disembedded” …

Beyond The Bright Side: Dark Personality At Work, Peter D. Harms, Seth M. Spain

P. D. Harms Publications

Despite the long history of the psychological study of dark personality characteristics and the recent surge of interest in the topic, much work remains to fully understand the breadth and depth of the impact of dark personality in the workplace. This commentary briefly covers the history of dark personality, discusses the place of this special issue within that history, and then proposes a number of avenues for future research in terms of defining, measuring, and providing a more comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of dark personality.

Racial Differences In Job Attribute Preferences: The Role Of Ethnic Identity And Self-Efficacy, Jakari N. Griffith, Gwendolyn M. Combs

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Using a sample of 149 white and 190 black business students, the authors examined racial differences in job attribute preferences. Results of this study indicate there were significant racial differences in 19 of 21 job attributes examined, with black students placing greater importance on job attributes than white students. Investigation of the mechanisms contributing to this difference reveals that the relationship between race and job attribute preferences was mediated by ethnic identity. Furthermore, the relationship between ethnic identity and job attributes was moderated by personal efficacy, with higher self-efficacy levels leading to greater importance placed on job attributes.

Diffusion Of Innovation: Customer Relationship Management Adoption In Supply Chain Organizations, Vicky Ching Gu, Marc J. Schniederjans, Qing Cao

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The successful diffusion of innovations in rapidly changing supply chain technological environments is essential to support operations and supply chain management functions. In this paper we conceptualize and develop a framework for research into the diffusion of innovations in organizations pertaining to software adoption in supply chain management. Incorporating Task-Technology Fit theory with a network externalities model, we develop a novel approach in customer relations management (CRM) software adoption. An empirical study using Partial Least Squares (PLS) on data from US supply chain managers is utilized to confirm the usability of the proposed framework as well as confirming the efficacy …

The Age Of Quality Innovation, Sang M. Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In this inaugural issue of International Journal of Quality Innovation, the Editor-in-Chief reports the evolution of quality management and the need for innovative research for creating new quality values.

The Influence Of Exploration On External Corporate Venturing Activity, Varkey K. Titus Jr., Jenny M. House, Jeffrey G. Covin

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We utilize the exploration/exploitation framework to examine how a firm’s engagement in exploration influences its portfolio of external corporate venturing (ECV) activities. Three forms of equity-based ECV are considered: corporate venture capital investments, joint ventures, and acquisitions. The organizational learning literature is used to investigate how a firm’s engagement in exploration influences its usage of acquisitions relative to its overall portfolio of ECV activities. The investing firm’s industry technological dynamism is posited as a moderator of the relationship between exploration and the relative usage of acquisitions. Utilizing a sample of 1,326 firm-year observations between 1996 and 2008, we find that …

The Paradox Of Knowledge Creation In A High-Reliability Organization: A Case Study, Ivana Milosevic, A. Erin Bass, Gwendolyn Combs

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We employed an instrumental case study of a multisystem hydroelectric power producer, a high-reliability organization (HRO), to explore how new knowledge is created in a context in which errors may result in destruction, catastrophic consequences, and even loss of human life. The findings indicate that knowledge creation is multilevel, nested within three levels of paradox: paradox of knowing, paradox of practice, and paradox of organizing. The combination of the lack of opportunity for errors with the dynamism of the HRO context necessitates that individuals work through multiple paradoxes to generate and formalize new knowledge. The findings contribute to the literature …

Contagion Effect Of Global Leaders’ Positive Psychological Capital On Followers: Does Distance And Quality Of Relationship Matter?, Joana S. P. Story, Carolyn M. Youssef-Morgan, Fred Luthans, John E. Barbuto Jr., James A. Bovaird

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

A key assumption of effective international human resource management (IHRM) is that global leaders influence and serve as role models for their followers, regardless of the inherent distance (physical and frequency of interaction) between them in today’s global context or the quality of the relationship. Although considerable attention has been devoted to cultural differences between global leaders and their diverse followers and teams, this study investigates the impact that distance and quality of the relationship has on a sample of a Fortune 100 multinational firm’s global leaders’ level of positive psychological capital (PsyCap) contagion effect on their followers located around …

Quality Management And Innovation: New Insights On A Structural Contingency Framework, Dara Schniederjans, Marc Schniederjans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

With increasing market competition, organizations are striving for greater innovation in products and services. Quality management has the potential to invigorate an organization’s product, process and administrative innovation when strategically aligned with internal contingencies. This paper seeks to address the relationship between social and technical quality management with innovation. Moreover, this paper empirically assesses contingency factors including organization size, task and managerial ethics which play roles in moderating the relationship between quality management and innovation. Based on an empirical study we find social quality management practices, not technical quality management practices, are positively associated with innovation. We also find a …

Relational Behavior Of Leaders: A Comparison By Vocational Context, G. Ronald Gilbert, Robert C. Myrtle, Ravipreet S. Sohi

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

Organizational researchers widely acknowledge that positive relational behavior is associated with leadership effectiveness. In this exploratory study, we seek to extend previous research examining contextual factors that influence leadership style based on the characteristics of person–vocation fit. Using information derived from a 360° assessment that included one’s top managers, peers, and subordinates (N = 934), we find that leaders working in settings that attract Holland’s Social (S) types demonstrate more positive relational behavior than those who work in Realistic (R) type work settings. Our research also indicates that the relationship between leadership style and perceived effectiveness varies based on …

Deception In Cosmetics Advertising: Examining Cosmetics Advertising Claims In Fashion Magazine Ads / 化妆品广告中的欺骗:分析时尚杂志广告中的化妆品广告, Jie G. Fowler, Timothy H. Reisenwitz, Les Carlson

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

The FDA has only focused upon the physical safety of cosmetics and has ignored the significant reasonability of advertising claims. As such, the present article is intended to examine/ascertain the extent to which cosmetics claims contain deceptive content in fashion ads. Through a content analysis, the study reported herein revealed that cosmetics claims were not evenly distributed. To that end, the preponderance of the claims appeared to be described primarily by three categories (scientific, performance and subjective). The results also showed that more cosmetics claims were classified as deceptive than were deemed as acceptable. Close examination of these trends revealed …

Resource Planning In Engineering Services Firms, Vincent Hargaden, Jennifer K. Ryan

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty and Staff Publications

We develop a model to enable engineering professional services firms to improve the management of their competitive resources, i.e., skilled engineers, to be better able to respond to customer demand. The model was informed by semistructured interviews with senior executives from engineering, information technology (IT) services and technical consulting firms. As a result, we capture many of the complexities associated with the resource planning process in the professional engineering services sector. In the resulting model, the key attributes of supply, demand, and operations constraints are identified. Based on information obtained from the interviews, a number of test firms are created.We …