Business Commons^™

“Untact”: A New Customer Service Strategy In The Digital Age, Sang M. Lee, Donhee Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The Industry 4.0 era has brought a shift in consumers’ purchasing behaviors from traditional retailing to online and/or mobile channels, triggered by advanced digital technologies and an easy access to the global market. Smart digital devices and advanced technologies have enabled “untact” service, facilitating customer encounters without a face-to-face contact with employees. This study presents the concept of untact service based on a review of the literature on technology-enabled customer encounters with service providers and analysis of several real-world cases. The results indicate that untact services are becoming widespread in various areas of daily life, such as ordering food at …

Lessons Learned From Battling Covid-19: The Korean Experience, Sang M. Lee, Donhee Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world like a gigantic tsunami, turning social and economic activities upside down. Methods: This paper presents some of the innovative response strategies implemented by the public health system, healthcare facilities, and government in South Korea, which has been hailed as the model country for its success in containing COVID-19. Korea reinvented its public health infrastructure with a sense of urgency. Results: Korea’s success rests on its readiness, with the capacity for massive testing and obtaining prompt test results, eective contact tracing based on its world-leading mobile technologies, timely provision of personal protective equipment …

Organizational Aspirations And External Venturing: The Contingency Of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Varkey K. Titus Jr., Owen Parker, Jeffrey G. Covin

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We contribute to the organizational aspirations and corporate venturing literature by theorizing and testing (a) the influence of a firm’s idiosyncratic strategic posture on behavioral responses to performance attainment discrepancies, and (b) that performance feedback may influence multifaceted yet thematically related forms of search. Specifically, we examine the influence of performance feedback on equity-based external corporate venturing. We then propose that a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is a critical contingency when theorizing about how firms respond to attainment discrepancies. Our findings indicate that a firm’s EO is an important contingency when considering behavioral responses to attainment discrepancies.

Inventory Sharing And Demand-Side Underweighting, Hui Zhao, Liang Xu, Enno Siemsen

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

Problem definition: Transshipment/inventory sharing has been used in practice because of its risk-pooling potential. However, human decision makers play a critical role in making inventory decisions in an inventory sharing system, which may affect its benefits. We investigate whether the opportunity to transship inventory influences decision makers’ inventory decisions and whether, as a result, the intended risk-pooling benefits materialize.

Academic/practical relevance: Previous research in transshipment, which is focused on finding optimal stocking and sharing decisions, assumes rational decision making without any systematic bias. As one of the first to study inventory sharing from a behavioral perspective, …

Performance Of Cross-Border Acquisitions: Evidence From China, Yuanyuan Fan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in China has increased dramatically in recent years. Under China’s “go global” strategy, Chinese firms are devoting more capital and time to developing their overseas business. Cross-border M&As make up a large proportion of these activities. Therefore, it is crucial to determine what factors affect the performance of cross-border acquisitions.

Previous studies show that the acquirers’ post-merger performance is affected by various factors. Those papers mainly focus on domestic M&As. However, cross-border M&As also have unique features. In this study, I focus on Chinese cross-border acquisitions and the factors that affect the …

On Effectuation And Networks: Three Essays On Their Mutuality, Jon Kerr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The notion of co-creating opportunities positions effectuation as both a network-driving and network-dependent phenomenon. On one hand, networks are products of relational interactions and, therefore, artefactual outcomes of effectual processes. On the other hand, it would seem that understanding networks and network processes is essential to understanding effectuation. Although past research acknowledges this mutuality, recent discourse highlights that our understanding of the relationship between effectuation and networks is far from complete. In this dissertation, I address this knowledge gap through three essays positioned at the interface of effectuation and network theory.

In the first essay, my systematic literature review synthesizes …

Leisure As Immediate Conscious Experience: Foundations, Evaluation, And Extension Of The Theory Of Structured Experiences, Gary D. Ellis, Jingxian Jiang, Patti A. Freeman, Andrew Lacanienta, Tazim Jamal

Faculty Publications

The nature, causes, and effects of immediate conscious leisure experiences have long been central interests of scholars. Significant contributions to the field include Abraham Maslow’s studies of ecstasy and peak experience, Sigmund Koch’s descriptions of two forms of consciousness, John Neulinger’s classification of immediate conscious experiences based on their motivational contexts, Michael J. Ellis’ application of arousal theory to play, Howard and Diane Tinsley’s theory of the leisure experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s career of inquiry into the “flow” phenomenon, and recently, the theory of structured experience (TSE). This paper reviews research on leisure as immediate conscious experience relating to development of …

Sme Manager Skills And Practices Survey (2020), Deirdre Mcquillan, Thomas M. Cooney, Ciara Nolan, Osa Godwin Osaghae, Wael Rashwan, Lorraine Sweeney

Research Instruments

Survey questions for assessing manager skills and practices in Small to Medium Enterprises under the Improving management development standards in SMEs in Ireland. A project funded by the European Union via the Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) - No SRSS/C2019/051

What Is The Relationship Between Immigrant Enclaves And Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurial Activity In Ireland?, Osa–Godwin Osaghae

Doctoral

This thesis is a pioneering study, exploring the relationship between immigrant enclaves (IE) and transnational diaspora entrepreneurship (TDE) in the unique context of a Nigerian immigrant community in Dublin. The study reviews the relevant literature in the field of immigrant entrepreneurship, adopting principles from the most significant studies in order to develop a conceptual model for understanding the relationship between an IE and TDE. The study employed qualitative semi-structured interviews with eleven participants in order to generate data, which was then processed through the six phases of thematic analysis described by Braun and Clarke. The researcher’s own experience as a …

Innovation Within Regulations: Gaining Insight On Cultivating Employee-Led Innovation In California Public-Sector Organizations, Rebecca N. Franklin

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The inquiry concerned gaining insights into environmental elements needed within California public-sector organizations to increase employees’ willingness to share innovative ideas. Although research exists regarding the need for service innovation and employees as fruitful sources of innovative ideas, there have been limited studies concerning public-sector organizations and the best method to solicit employee ideas. The data collection for this qualitative research study consisted of a series of interviews with front-line, non-supervisory civil servants. The results provide insights and information on how public-sector organizations may foster a culture that promotes and encourages employee-led innovation. The themes that emerged were (a) transparency …

Feeling Activated And Acting Unethically: The Influence Of Activated Mood On Unethical Behavior To Benefit A Teammate, Elizabeth E. Umphress, Richard G. Gardner, Adam C. Stoverink, Keith Leavitt

Faculty Publications

Research on the effects of mood in organizations tends to focus on the valence dimension of mood (positive vs. negative), overlooking the activation dimension (activated vs. deactivated).We suggest that activation level prompts unethical behavior. Based on the affective infusion model (AIM; Forgas, 1995), we predict that positive activated and negative activated moods facilitate unethical behavior to benefit a teammate, via the mediating mechanism of a creative mindset. We test our fullmodel using an experience sampling method over 2 weeks, in which mood and creative mindset were assessed in the morning and unethical behavior conducted that day was assessed in the …

Provocation And Related Subjective Experiences Along The Dark Tourism Spectrum, Andrew Lacanienta, Gary Ellis, Brian Hill, Patti Freeman, Jingxian Jiang

Faculty Publications

We examined relations between ‘darkness’ of dark tourism sites, provocation, and select indicators of the quality of visitors’ immediate subjective experiences. Experience observations (N = 101) were collected from tourists who visited Auschwitz (Krakow), Schindler’s Factory (Krakow), Execution Square (Paris), and a ghost tour (Edinburgh). Research participants completed measures of provocation and quality of experience at the end of their visits to each site. Hypotheses were founded in four theories: self-determination theory, cognitive dissonance theory, arousal theory, and the theory of structured experience. These hypotheses proposed that particular experience outcomes vary according to the ‘darkness’ of the dark tourism site. …

Rethinking Leisure Time Use Metrics: Greater Diversity In Shared Sibling Leisure Is Associated With Higher Relationship Quality During Emerging Adulthood, Eric K. Layland, Camilla Hodge, Mikala Glaza, Jerrica O. Peets

Faculty Publications

Leisure diversity—the total number of unique leisure categories shared within a sibling dyad—may vary according to sibling characteristics (e.g., sibling gender, age difference) and predict sibling relationship quality. Using triangulated lists, brief narratives, and focus groups, we constructed a taxonomy of shared sibling leisure in emerging adulthood and then calculated individual leisure diversity scores. The sample (N ¼ 185) included college-attending emerging adults with an average age of 20.1 years (35.7% female). Taxonomic analysis suggested 19 categories of shared sibling leisure. Analyses of variance indicated differences by dyadic gender composition in endorsement rates of select leisure categories and average levels …

In Situ Engagement During Structured Leisure Experiences: Conceptualization, Measurement, And Theory Testing, Gary D. Ellis, Jingxian Jiang, Patti A. Freeman, Andrew Lacanienta, Elizabeth J. Ellis

Faculty Publications

We conducted an experiment to test theoretical propositions relating coherence, personalization, and provocation to in-situ engagement, deep experience, delight, and perceived value of time spent. Four hundred adults from a national panel viewed one of eight versions of a video centered on a character in Victor Hugo’s classic novel Les Miserables, and then completed measures of engagement, deep experience, delight, perceived value of time spent, preexisting familiarity with the story, and the subjective experience of provocation. Each video represented a unique combination of presence or absence of the three hypothesized determinants: coherence, personalization, and provocation. Coherence, personalization, and preexisting familiarity …

Penjanaan Ekonomi Masjid Menerusi Aktiviti Perniagaan: Kajian Di Masjid-Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Adnan Amru Alhaz

Student Works (2020-2029)

Hubungan di antara masjid dan ekonomi amat berkait rapat mengambil kira sebahagian fungsi asalnya sebagai pusat perkembangan ekonomi masyarakat Islam. Namun begitu kebergantungan institusi masjid kepada sumber pendapatan tradisi mengakibatkan institusi masjid tidak mampu melaksanakan fungsinya secara menyeluruh. Oleh yang demikian, penjanaan ekonomi masjid menerusi aktiviti perniagaan merupakan alternatif terbaik dalam memastikan kelestarian sumber pendapatannya. Justeru kajian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis sumber pendapatan, aktiviti serta faktor kejayaan perniagaan masjid-masjid kariah di Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (WPKL). Dalam kajian ini, data-data penyata kewangan tahunan rasmi selama tiga tahun (2014-2016) bagi dua belas buah masjid yang mewakili enam buah pusat pentadbiran zon …

Understanding And Measuring Net Positive Business Strategies, Luke Ruffner Robinson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite their attempts to mitigate ecological impacts through sustainability initiatives, businesses are a major cause of the world's ecological problems. Some progressive businesses are attempting to move beyond “net zero” in terms of achieving neutral environmental impacts and instead are now pursuing a goal of net positive. Net positive refers to the idea that business activities could contribute value-added benefits to earth’s ecological systems, for example, by using technologies that sequester and store carbon. However, except for a handful of high-profile corporate case studies, little is known about how companies are developing their strategies to become net positive and …

Separate But Not Equal: Toward A Nomological Net For Migrants And Migrant Entrepreneurship, Lisa Jones Christensen, Arielle Badger Newman, Heidi Herrick, Paul Godfrey

Faculty Publications

This paper considers migrants on a continuum in terms of voluntariness of departure and intended timeframe in the new location. The corresponding 2 x 2 framework offers a theory-driven typology with which to consider four groups: exiles, sojourners, immigrants, and refugees. We apply the framework to the topic of migrant entrepreneurship, demonstrating the need for separate consideration of refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs. We propose ways in which types of capital differ between the two and discuss how differences affect entrepreneurial endeavors. The framework extends scholarship on migrant entrepreneurship, while providing a nomological net for improved theorizing for a range of …

The Impact Of The Introduction Of Fx Futures On The Volatility Of The Underlying Asian Emerging Market Currencies, Teresa Starzecki

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

This paper examines the impact of the introduction of currency futures on the volatility of four Asian emerging market currencies: Chinese yuan, Indian rupee, South Korean won, and Thai baht. A GARCH(1,1) model is implemented to measure volatility in pre- and post- futures introduction periods along with an MCMC procedure to estimate the model and test the significance in changes in volatility between the periods. We find that for three of the four currencies, the persistence and long-run mean of volatility significantly decrease after futures were introduced, while the variance of variance decreases for all four currencies. The results suggest …

Increasing Airports' On-Time Arrival Performance Through Airport Capacity And Efficiency Indicators, Nurettin Dinler, William B. Rankin

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

To optimize the U.S. airports’ operational performance, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides various metric values (i.e., average gate arrival delays, the average number of daily aircraft operations, effective gate-to-gate times, and taxi-in and taxi-out times) attributed to NextGen programs. The U.S. airports are now expected of designing more efficient arrival and departure procedures as part of their NextGen capabilities. This study, therefore, examined the relationship between airport efficiency and capacity indicators, provided by the FAA as metric values, and the U.S. airports’ on-time arrival rates over the period from 2009 to 2017. To test the relationship and build a …

Using Internship Design To Shape Sustainable University-Industry Relationships:A Research Agenda?, Conor Horan

Level 3

This discursive article considers models and types of internships internationally and how particular models can be used as a strategic tool to shape effective university-industry partnerships. It argues why research into the nature, purpose and impact of internships in industry partnerships is urgently required.

Knowledge And Skill Predictors Of Voice Behavior: Voice As An Upward Influence, Zitong Sheng

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing body of research focused on improving our understanding of employee voice behavior. Yet this literature focuses mainly on factors that influence employees’ decisions regarding whether to speak up (i.e., quantity of voice behavior), rather than factors that influence whether voice behavior turns out to be effective. As a result, job attitudes and personality characteristics have been identified as the major personal factors predicting voice behavior. The current study contributes to the voice literature by viewing voice from an upward influence angle, examining the influences of the quality of content and …

Essays On Risk Management Of Insurance Companies, Olga Kanj

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the risk management of insurance companies. It consists of three essays, which study the risk management of property and casualty (P/C) insurance companies. The first essay examines the impact of board diversity on firms’ risk-taking strategies using Canadian P/C insurance companies. The findings show that board ethnic diversity significantly decreases company risk as measured by reinsurance, asset risk, and leverage risk. Ethnic background values of the board members could be the reason behind this effect, board members with ethnic backgrounds from countries with high (low) Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) decrease (increase) the risk. Results also show that …

Building Renewed Relevance: Portraits Of Ceos Rebranding Iconic Nonprofit Organizations, Helen A. Lowman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In the United States, we often refer to the social sector as one leg of a three-legged stool. The private and public sectors support the other two legs. The social sector made up of nonprofit, nongovernmental, and charity organizations, contributes to the development of American society by focusing on social good rather than the desire to make profit. For decades, the sector has functioned as the social conscience of our society. However, many iconic, legacy nonprofits have struggled to keep their relevance in today’s world: their creation tied to a past societal problem, their mission and brand no longer germane …

The Experience Of Children's Mental Health Leaders During Times Of Constraint: A Narrative Study, Jody Levison-Johnson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Across the United States, each state has a public mental health system that is designed to support children and youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. This is critically important as recent estimates show that one in six children in the United States has a diagnosed mental health condition (Whitney & Peterson, 2019). The design and structure of these systems vary by state, but consistent across them is the presence of a state-designated leader who is faced with an array of constraining factors that influence their behavior and shape the resulting system. This study describes the experience of leaders in children’s …

Managing Clinic Variability With Same-Day Scheduling, Intervention For No-Shows, And Seasonal Capacity Adjustments, Kum Khiong Yang, Tugba Cayirli

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates demand and capacity strategiesfor managing clinic variability. These include (i) same-day scheduling tocontrol random walk-ins, (ii) no-show intervention, where the clinic callsadvance-booked patients a day before to identify and release canceled slots tosame-day patients, and (iii) adjustments to daily number of appointments foradvance-booked patients to match seasonal variations in same-day demand. Thesestrategies are tested over the individual-block/fixed-interval (IBFI) and theDome appointment rules. The resulting appointment systems are tested underscenarios with different levels of same-day demand, demand seasonality,no-shows and cost ratios. The goal is to minimize the weighted sum of patients’wait time and physician’s idle-time and overtime. Our …

J Mich Dent Assoc January 2020

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Every month, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists!

In this issue, the reader will find the following original content:

• A cover story on "Preventing Pediatric Obesity: How the Dental Team Can Help”.
• “We Can Make a Difference in a Child’s Life”, a feature with a special message to MDA members from Suzanne Port, DDS, MS, president of the Michigan Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
• A feature on “The Age-1 Visit: Time to Welcome Children into …

Leader Readiness In A Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, And Ambiguous Business Environment, Karen Rimita, Stephanie N. Hoon, Robert Levasseur

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Organizational leaders in the 21st century face relentless changes in the business environments in which they operate. The diversity, intensity, and rapidity of these changes create volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), which challenge leaders on ways to lead effectively as existing methods prove inadequate. The problem in this study was that of inadequate leader preparedness to lead and win in VUCA environments. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of 15 Nigerian corporate executives about their VUCA business environment and the strategies they employed for VUCA-readiness and success using open-ended interview questions. The …

Customer Service Challenges In Omni-Channel Retailing—An Exploratory Study Of Vague Language In Retailer Customer Service Policies, Terence L. Holmes, Edward C. Brewer

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Retailers are interacting with customers via an ever-increasing number of touchpoints. The addition of social media and mobile devices to the traditional physical and virtual retail platforms has created an evolving consumer practice of using several such "touchpoints" in the course of a single purchase (the "omni-channel”). The difficulty of providing high levels of customer service has increased with the necessity of managing multiple channels under the retailer’s control and coordinating formally or informally with touchpoints not directly within the retailer’s own operations. Multiple sources of potentially conflicting information (e.g., order fulfillment) can lead to miscommunication, and thus poor service …

A Social Network Perspective Of Employee Overqualification To Outcomes Relationships In Workgroups, Farid Jahantab

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Integrating overqualification research with the social network perspective, and emphasizing social exchanges among organizational members, I propose to examine how social networks unpack the relationship between perceived overqualification and organizational outcomes. Specifically, I suggest that perceived overqualification (POQ) has implications for employees' centrality in a friendship network and that friendship network centrality (FRDNC) mediates the relationships between perceived overqualification and organizational outcomes (operationalized as organizational citizenship behaviors directed at coworkers [i.e., OCBI] and turnover intentions). Further, adopting a contingency approach to overqualification, I propose to identify contextual variables that determine the strength of perceived overqualification-social network-outcomes relationships. Social comparison theory …

Achieving Effectiveness And Innovation In U.S. Public Organizations Through Ability-Enhancing And Opportunity-Enhancing Soft/Commitment High Performance Work Practices, Kingshuk Saha

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

It is well-established in the management literature that HPWPs improve productivity in the private sector. But does HPWPs work in the public sector? A thorough literature search revealed only 45 HPWPs studies done in the public sector. The first purpose of this Dissertation is a thorough literature review of these 45 studies. Out of these 45 studies, only 12 had samples obtained from the U.S. Hence, it can be argued that there is much to be discovered about HPWPs in the U.S. public sector. The second purpose of this Dissertation is to categorize HPWPs in the U.S. public sector based …