Business Commons^™

An Improved Model For Trust-Aware Recommender Systems Based On Multi-Faceted Trust, Peihu Zhu

Theses & Dissertations

As customers enjoy the convenience of online shopping today, they face the problem of selecting from hundreds of thousands of products. Recommender systems, which make recommendations by matching products to customers based on the features of the products and the purchasing history of customers, are increasingly being incorporated into e-commerce websites. Collaborative filtering is a major approach to design algorithms for these systems. Much research has been directed toward enhancing the performance of recommender systems by considering various psychological and behavioural factors affecting the behaviour of users, e.g. trust and emotion.

While e-commerce firms are keen to exploit information on …

Highly-Educated Immigrant Entrepreneurs' Location Decisions, Nastaran Simarasl

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I draw on theories from sociology, economics, and economic geography, namely ethnic enclave theory, location theory, and heterolocalism theory to investigate factors that highly-educated immigrant entrepreneurs take into account when they decide where to locate their start-up. In doing so, I use an experimental method, conjoint analysis, on a sample of first-generation graduate students at the University of Tennessee to examine the factors that highly-educated aspiring immigrant entrepreneurs take into account when deciding about their start-up location. This dissertation is one of the first studies to bring theories from other disciplines to provide a more comprehensive understanding …

Governance Of Supply Chain Information Flows, Joonhwan In

Doctoral Dissertations

With the recognition of the criticality of information flow in the supply chain, much research has examined various pertinent areas such as information sharing and the use of IT applications, and generated valuable insights about how an organization could reap the benefits through an effective supply chain information flow by building on the implicit assumption that organizations in the supply chain cope with issues around supply chain information in a similar way, which would lead to the conjecture that the quality of supply chain information is equivalent across supply chain members. However, many organizations still struggle for poor information flow …

Cross-Functional Integration In The Supply Chain: Construct Development And The Impact Of Workplace Behaviors, Daniel A. Pellathy

Doctoral Dissertations

Cross-functional integration (CFI) is central to supply chain theory and practice. However, researchers have yet to settled on a consistent definition or measure of CFI, creating confusion over its conceptual content and making it difficult to validate given operationalizations. In addition, researchers have only recently begun to explore the impact of workplace behaviors on CFI and supply chain performance. The two studies in this dissertation seek to contribute to the supply chain literature in both of these areas. Study 1 develops a comprehensive definition and valid measure of CFI based on a systematic process of construct development. Study 2 employs …

Applications Of Business Analytics In Marketing: Joint Modeling Of Correlated Multivariate Outcomes, Sumin Han

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I develop a general regression methodology for mixed multivariate outcomes. This methodology extends the generalized linear mixed model paradigm (glmm) to allow for correlated multivariate normal random effects across regression equations for differing outcomes. This methodology, referred to as joint modeling, is particularly useful in business and marketing applications where multiple outcomes of varying data type must be analyzed simultaneously with regression.

I apply joint models to binary and continuous measures of customer loyalty in a large multinational survey of car owners. Survey respondents’ word-of-mouth and desire to switch brands were used as proxies for attitudinal loyalty …

Examining The Nature And Consequences Of Interfunctional Bias In A Corporate Setting, William Adam Powell

Doctoral Dissertations

Interfunctional bias is examined in this dissertation as a potential barrier to interfunctional cooperation. Interfunctional cooperation is desirable in modern corporate organizations as a contributor to effective service delivery, operations planning, and sales performance. Interfunctional stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are hypothesized to relate positively, and together provide the bias-based theoretical basis through which barriers to interfunctional cooperation can be more thoroughly understood. Based on the extant literature in marketing and psychology, competing models of interfunctional bias are developed and hypothesized. In the first of three studies a questionnaire-based survey of supply chain employees’ perceptions of salespeople permitted the examination of …

Corporate Social Responsibility: Sexual Exploitation Of Children In The Costa Rican Hotel Tourist Industry, Michelle Flynn Osborne

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

According to the 2016 International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 168 million children are forced to labor worldwide, and more than half of these children work in some of the worst forms. Sexual exploitation and human trafficking are classified by the ILO as being some of the worst forms of child labor existing in the twenty-first century. Child labor in the worst forms are more prevalent in developing countries due to poverty and lack of education. The United States Department of State monitors human trafficking and child sexual exploitation through an annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP). The 2015 TIP …

Essays In Operations Management, Heejong Lim

Open Access Dissertations

In the first essay, we investigate the impact of reciprocity in the dyadic supply chain. Our study is motivated by the experiences of the semiconductor and LCD industries, we investigate the impact of reciprocity in the dyadic supply chain. A notable characteristic in the above technology industries is the alternating possession of bargaining power caused by cyclical demand. We incorporate a reciprocal game in a dyadic supply channel over two periods. We investigate how a supplier is influenced and protects himself during the oversupply period by anticipating the buyer's reciprocal behavior. Our results show that a supplier's understanding of a …

Three Essays On Work-Nonwork Balance, Min Wan

Theses and Dissertations

Achieving balance between work and nonwork lives is important for individuals and organizations as it may generate various desirable outcomes, such as high role performance, positive role attitudes, and psychological and physiological well-being. However, scholars and practitioners have not reached a common understanding of the content and process of work-nonwork balance. A variety of work-nonwork balance definitions, theories, and measures, as well as numerous correlates, have emerged in this area. In addition, a majority of the studies focused on this topic have theorized work-nonwork balance as a stable construct and measured it in order to explain the between-individual variance. Consequently, …

Newsvendor Models With Monte Carlo Sampling, Ijeoma W. Ekwegh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Newsvendor Models with Monte Carlo Sampling by Ijeoma Winifred Ekwegh The newsvendor model is used in solving inventory problems in which demand is random. In this thesis, we will focus on a method of using Monte Carlo sampling to estimate the order quantity that will either maximizes revenue or minimizes cost given that demand is uncertain. Given data, the Monte Carlo approach will be used in sampling data over scenarios and also estimating the probability density function. A bootstrapping process yields an empirical distribution for the order quantity that will maximize the expected profit. Finally, this method will be used …

Essays On The Performance And Earnings Management Of Cross-Listing Firms, Klaus S. Beckmann

Theses and Dissertations

I investigate the performance and earnings management of firms that cross-list in foreign markets. In the first essay, I analyze and compare the underpricing and buy-and-hold abnormal returns of depositary receipt equity offerings with preceding Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) of the same firms to identify differences and motivations of equity offerings free of any matching bias. I find that domestic equity offerings entail significantly larger underpricing than subsequent foreign equity offerings. The average buy-and-hold abnormal returns of depositary receipt equity offerings are significantly lower than the underlying firm’s performance at preceding domestic equity issuances over …

Manufacturing Site Selection In The Global Context, Mahsa Mardikoraem Mardikoraem

Theses and Dissertations

The decision making regarding global site selection has been always a challenging and strategic problem. Recently, due to the globalization of the problem many new factors such as political, social, regulatory, government, environmental consideration, etc. gained importance in the decision making process. One of the goals in this thesis is to identify the relevant factors in manufacturing site selection and incorporate them into the data analysis. The collection of a wide range of factors that impact the manufacturing site selection problem at a country level, the quantification of these factors, and incorporation of them into the decision making process needs …

The Influence Of Social Capital On Project Success Outcomes And The Moderating Role Of Project Complexity, Olajumoke A. Awe

Business Administration Dissertations

Social capital has been found to benefit projects and project teams in organizations. However, the research literature is unclear about the extent to which these benefits may be negatively impacted by project complexity. Based on an extensive review of the extant literature and an exploratory case study, testable hypotheses were generated. Using the survey methodology with 302 project managers as respondents, support was found for the hypothesis that knowledge management effectiveness mediates the relationship between bonding capital and project performance as well as between bridging capital and performance. In contrast, our results suggest that creativity does not mediate these relationships. …

A Taxonomy Of Effective Leader Behaviors In The Construction Industry, Enrique Leonardo Cabrera-Caban

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The construction industry is a major part of the United States economy, but it is also one of the most dangerous and high-risk industries. The industry is currently facing a shortage of effective leadership, and leaders face unique challenges in coordinating multiple teams of subcontractors on projects. The first step in remedying this shortage is to identify the behaviors of an effective construction leader. To address this need, a taxonomy of effective leader behaviors in construction was developed using grounded theory methodology and rated by construction industry subject matter experts. Archival focus group data from 10 focus groups in three …

The Lived Experiences Of Women In The Information Technology Field As They Transition From One Leadership Level To The Next: A Phenomenological Study, Marilyn Delmont

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There is an increasing disparity of women in the IT field, when compared to men, specifically within IT executive leadership roles. The number of women in IT executive leadership lags drastically behind men IT executives and has gone down by five percent since 2008. Despite significant growth in the IT field women are not growing with it. IT jobs are expected to increase by 1.5 million in the next decade. The purpose and central question of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of women and how they develop as IT leaders. Beginning with 19 broad questions, …

Connection Or Competence: Emotional Labor Versus Service Quality As Antecedents To Customer Loyalty, Andrew Moreo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Service delivery has become increasingly important in service heavy industries and particularly within restaurants. Within this segment, the employee’s ability to display the appropriate emotions is of great concern. The axiom “service with a smile”, has been a mainstay for many years. However, a frown has the opposite effect. The question has been raised, how do frontline employees manage their emotions so as to provide the service with the appropriate emotion and the feeling of a genuine connection? This form of labor has been coined, emotional labor, and has a research stream dedicated to its understanding.

This dissertation utilized a …

The Effects Of Source And Content On Types Of Social Influence In Online Traveler Reviews, Laura A. Book

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Today’s highly connected purchasing environment is unique in that consumers are confronted with a vast quantity of information from a variety of sources. Using the theoretical underpinnings of social influence and judgmental heuristics, this dissertation examines source and content characteristics to understand their influence on consumers’ perceptions and decisions. This dissertation utilized two experiments to examine how source and content attributes lead to different types information processing and types of social influence in online reviews. The first study utilized a 2 (expertise) x 2 (group membership) experimental design that manipulated source characteristics. The second study utilized a 2 (recommendation percentage) …

Communication Network Among Campus Sustainability Influencers, Alexandra C. Freling

Honors Thesis

Systems of all types require efficient communication between its parts and units in order to be successful and e ective. It is thus important to understand a systems units in order to better advance its operations. In this study, we look at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) as a systematic organization in regards to the universitys execution of its environmental sustainability endeavors. This approach allows for the identification of the path by which important environmental sustainability information is communicated, is learned, and is acted upon at LMU. Through various network centrality measurements, I will develop a visual representation of the communication …

An Information And Communication Technologies For Development (Ict4d) Decision Framework For Building An Information Economy In Developing Countries: The Case Of Palestine, Hasan Nuseibeh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Building a thriving information economy is a goal for many developing countries. This research helps identify the factors (inhibitors and motivators) that can be used to leverage the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in a developing country to build a sustainable information economy that benefits other sectors of the economy. This is done by studying the current literature on this topic and then synthesizing the theoretical models to create a unified decision framework to help developing countries set their path to building a sustainable information economy.

Drawing on past literature and extant theory, a novel ICT4D decision framework is …

Work-Value Profile And Career Success, Chee Wee Koh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Work values, defined as the end states people desire and expect to realize through work, appear to play a role in career success, but the small number of past studies have reported conflicting results, some of which may be attributed to research methodology. Using a person-centered approach to model the conjoint effects of intrinsic and extrinsic work values, the present study inductively investigated the association between work-value profile and career success using a three-panel longitudinal dataset consisting of 905 lawyers from the After the Juris Doctorate (AJD) study. Latent profile analysis identified five work-value profiles: (i) Neither Intrinsic nor Extrinsic …

Two Essays On Ceo Inside Debt Holding In Relation To Firm Payout Policy And Financial Reporting, Asligul Erkan

Finance Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is a thorough examination of CEO inside debt holding, and consists of two essays. The first essay focuses on the relationship between CEO inside debt and firm payout policy. Previous studies document that higher CEO inside debt is associated with lower firm payout which is explained by CEO’s motivation to preserve cash either in order not to default on debt obligations or in order to keep cash available for his future pension benefits. This study investigates how do excess cash, overinvestment risk, and firm-specific information asymmetry affect this negative relationship, and examines net payout to shareholders as well …

The Effect Of Xbrl And Social Media On Information Asymmetry: Evidence From Bank Loan Contracts, Dazhi Chong

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzes how two information technology advancements, the adoption of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), and social media, affect bank loan contracting using a sample of 554 US bank loan contracts in 2011. I hypothesize that the adoption of XBRL and social media can enhance information dissemination and mitigate the information asymmetry problem between borrowers and lenders. Consistent with this hypothesize, I find that borrowers that adopt XBRL and/or receive positive social media user opinion in social media enjoy more favorable price and non-price terms of bank loan contracts. Additional analyses indicate that the relations among XBRL adoption, social …

Two Essays On The Internationalization Speed Of New Ventures, Orhun Guldiken

Management Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation comprises two essays on the internationalization speed of new ventures and contributes to the international entrepreneurship literature at several levels. The first essay reviews and critiques the internationalization speed literature and proposes a multi-dimensional conceptualization of speed of internationalization. In particular, previous studies that examined internationalization speed implicitly assumed that INVs need to enter new countries to grow fast in foreign markets. The key tenet of the first essay is that INVs can also grow fast in foreign markets by expanding rapidly in previously entered host countries. Consequently, the first essay uses three theoretical perspectives — organizational learning, …

Two Essays On Shareholder Base, Firm Behavior, And Firm Value, Yi Jian

Finance Theses & Dissertations

Most companies spend significant time and attention to managing their shareholder base out of the belief that significant stock market benefits can be reaped if they can identify and attract the right shareholders. Consistent with the opinion of practitioners, many financial economists suggest that the shareholder base is an important determinant of firm value and corporate policies (Lins and Warnock 2004; Brav, Graham, Harvey, and Michaley 2005; Bodnaruk and Ostberg 2013). Despite the importance of the shareholder base, research on the topic has been scant. What’s more, previous studies have reported conflicting results regarding the effect of the shareholder base …

A Study Of The Impact Of Information Blackouts On The Bullwhip Effect Of A Supply Chain Using Discrete-Event Simulations, Elizabeth Rasnick

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Theses & Dissertations

This study adds to the supply chain management literature by introducing and investigating information blackouts, sudden and short-duration failure of the information flow. This study aims to contribute to the literature in following ways: first, to define information blackouts in a supply chain. Second, to investigate the response of supply chains to information blackouts using discrete-event simulation. Prior research has focused more on analyzing systemic disruptions to supply chains from well-known sources. We expect the results of this study to be useful to supply chain managers in disaster prone areas.

Founder Ceos And Initial Public Offerings: The Role Of Narratives, Institutions And Cultural Context, Christina Helen Tupper

Management Theses & Dissertations

This is a two essay dissertation which explores how founder and non-founder CEOs influence the IPO process and seeks to better understand their impact on IPO performance in a cross-national set of firms. Essay 1 addresses the question ‘how founder and non-founder CEOs’ narratives are portrayed differently in business media.’ Using insights from the narrative paradigm and utilizing qualitative content analysis for 1,057 units of data, I find that founders and non-founders’ media narratives differ in three important ways based on the amount of personal information about founders, how founders talk about their business operations, and positive and negative name …

Extension Of The Gravity Model: A Risk Integrated Approach Towards The Impact Analysis Of Mega Sports Events On Inbound Tourist Arrivals, Abdul Sami Stanekzai

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Mega sports events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are highly attended and countries compete ferociously to host such events due to their perceived long term positive effects. Inbound tourist forecasting is an important aspect of the hosting decision both for the organizing committees and the hosting nations. As a precaution against letting the event fall into incapable hands, which can lead into chaos and mismanagement, measures needs to be taken. Capacity evaluation of interested parties is possible, only by knowing the number of people who may attend the event. However, due to the infrequent occurrence of …

Organizational Value Capture, Embeddedness, And Status Notification Among Star Employees, Matthew Call

Theses and Dissertations

Despite increasing scholarly interest in star employees, there remains confusion as to (1) what a star is, (2) how organizations can share in the value they create, and (3) whether notifying them of their star status within organizations increases or decreases a star’s turnover intentions and value capture. In light of these knowledge gaps, I seek to make the following contributions in this dissertation. First, I review recent multidisciplinary conceptual development that has led to a unified definition of stars: individuals that exhibit prolonged and disproportionately high performance, visibility, and social capital. Second, while prior work suggests that, to capture …

The Influence Of Wait Time Units On Patience In Intertemporal Choice, Rafay A. Siddiqui

Theses and Dissertations

Patience is important for consumers. It allows consumers to forgo immediate desires and instead reap greater benefits in the future. We can see a conflict between immediate and future benefits in our everyday decisions, such as when we decide whether to spend money on frivolous products while shopping at the mall, or to set money aside for the future.

In this dissertation I study patience through the context of intertemporal choice. These choices are commonplace in the marketplace, and involve choosing between a smaller-sooner (SS) and a larger-later (LL) reward. SS and LL are separated by a wait time period. …

Two Essays On The Effects Of Emphasizing Social Consequences In Warning Messages, Mitchel Richard Murdock

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effects of warning messages that emphasize the social consequences of negative health outcomes and demonstrates that highlighting social (versus health) consequences leads to greater perceived temporal proximity of the outcome, increased perceived vulnerability to the outcome, and less favorable consumption experiences. Oftentimes health messages are ineffective at altering risk perceptions and eliciting long-term behavior change because the health consequence seems very distant and unlikely to happen (e.g. mouth cancer from smoking). However, when a negative health outcome is seen through a social lens (e.g. mouth cancer makes a person unattractive) versus a health lens (e.g. mouth …