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Full-Text Articles in Business

Credit Strategies For Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises Within A Changing Environment, James Edward Wilkinson Jan 2017

Credit Strategies For Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises Within A Changing Environment, James Edward Wilkinson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Access to credit in the changing environment is the primary challenge to survival for many small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners. The purpose of this multicase study was to understand how seasoned small business leaders in wholesaling and manufacturing in Northwest Arkansas strategically adapted to obtaining access to credit in an environment of bank mergers and acquisitions, disruptive information technology, federal and state regulations, and globalization. The conceptual framework that grounded this study was adaptive leadership and change management. Although, small business leaders prefer to obtain credit from community banks through relationship financing, leaders of SMEs can adapt to the …


Uncontrolled Workplace Breaks And Productivity, Huda Mashal Jan 2017

Uncontrolled Workplace Breaks And Productivity, Huda Mashal

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Behaviors that may waste time in the workplace, like surfing the Internet for personal purposes (cyberloafing) or smoking breaks, may be the root antecedent for poor productivity. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine whether there was a relationship between the independent variables: time spent cyberloafing and time in uncontrolled smoking breaks, and the dependent variable: employee productivity. Procedural justice theory was used to frame the study. The population consisted of 34 employees working in a multinational engineering company in Jordan who have official smoking policies, but not cyberloafing policies. Correlations and multiple regression were computed using a …


The Effects Of Process Management On Stakeholder Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Donna Pulliam-Brown Jan 2017

The Effects Of Process Management On Stakeholder Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Donna Pulliam-Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2012, there were over 500,000 business management degrees conferred at the undergraduate and graduate level; however, the assessment of student performance has not kept pace with the growth of courses offered in both an online and traditional format. One of the objectives of teaching is to ensure that all students regardless of mode of instruction are receiving a quality education. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to measure the efficiency of learning in a business discipline by evaluating final course grades of 1,051 students. Ten traditional and 10 online course grades provided final student outcomes that were used to …


Is Retention Necessarily A Win? Outcomes Of Searching And Staying, Wendy R. Boswell, Richard G. Gardner, Jiexin Wang Jan 2017

Is Retention Necessarily A Win? Outcomes Of Searching And Staying, Wendy R. Boswell, Richard G. Gardner, Jiexin Wang

Faculty Publications

This research examines the issue of employee retention by considering what happens to employees that engage in the job search process yet end up staying with an organization. Grounded in the conceptualization of reluctant staying from Hom, Mitchell, Lee, and Griffeth (2012), we consider a potential downside of employee retention. Specifically, the study examines the psychological (i.e., job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment) and behavioral detachment (i.e., neglect behavior, diminished job performance) employees may experience when they search for alternative employment yet ultimately stay with an organization. This study also examines the moderating role of the objective underlying the search behavior …


Understanding “It Depends” In Organizational Research: A Theory-Based Taxonomy, Review, And Future Research Agenda Concerning Interactive And Quadratic Relationships, Richard G. Gardner, T. Brad Harris, Ning Li, Bradley L. Kirkman, John E. Mathieu Jan 2017

Understanding “It Depends” In Organizational Research: A Theory-Based Taxonomy, Review, And Future Research Agenda Concerning Interactive And Quadratic Relationships, Richard G. Gardner, T. Brad Harris, Ning Li, Bradley L. Kirkman, John E. Mathieu

Faculty Publications

The study of interaction effects is critical for creating, extending, and bounding theory in organizational research. Integrating and extending prior work, we present a taxonomy of two-way interaction effects that can guide organizational scholars toward clearer, more precise ways of developing theory, advancing hypotheses, and interpreting results. Specifically, we identify three primary interaction types, including strengthening, weakening, and reversing effects. In addition, we explore subcategories within these interaction types. Our review of articles published in leading management and applied psychology journals from 2009 to 2013 supports the generalizability of this framework. We offer specific recommendations for using this taxonomy to …


Self-Efficacy Of Risk Taking In Outdoor Recreation As A Predictor Of The Self-Efficacy Of Risk Taking In Essay Writing, Stacy T. Taniguchi, John Bennion, Mat D. Duerden, Mark A. Widmer, Meagan Ricks Jan 2017

Self-Efficacy Of Risk Taking In Outdoor Recreation As A Predictor Of The Self-Efficacy Of Risk Taking In Essay Writing, Stacy T. Taniguchi, John Bennion, Mat D. Duerden, Mark A. Widmer, Meagan Ricks

Faculty Publications

During two decades of teaching, we have observed that writing students seem more emotionally honest when their writing class is accompanied by an outdoor recreation component. The ability to take perceived risks is important to both outdoor recreation and writing; thus, we postulated that confidence gained in taking risks in outdoor experiences might affect students’ confidence in taking risks in their reflective writing. In this study, we applied Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory to two classes of writing students, one that included outdoor experience and one that did not. We examined whether participating in outdoor activities would increase the self-efficacy of …


واقع الاقتصاد العراقي ومتطلبات اصلاحه, ثامر عبد العالي كاظم Jan 2017

واقع الاقتصاد العراقي ومتطلبات اصلاحه, ثامر عبد العالي كاظم

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

يعد العراق من الدول التي تعاني من تدهور كبير في معدلات النمو الاقتصادي الذي يمثل الهدف الرئيس لجميع الدول ، اذ لا يمكن تصور عملية التنمية بدون ان تكون هناك معدلات مرتفعة ومستمرة من النمو الاقتصادي ، والعراق يعتمد منذ امد بعيد وحتى اليوم على القطاع النفطي الذي يهيمن على نسبة كبيرة تتراوح بين 40 – 62 % من الناتج المحلي الاجمالي و 78 – 98 % من ايرادات الموازنة العامة للدولة وعلى ما نسبته 83 – 99 % من اجمالي الصادرات خلال المدة 2003 – 2014 ، تؤكد هذه البيانات وجود اختلالات بنيوية كبيرة جعلت الاقتصاد العراقي مرهون بتبعيته …


Identifying Key Areas Of Worklife And Their Interactive Effect In Explaining Pakistani Nurses’ Burnout, Faisal Qadeer, Amnah Imtiaz, Imran Hameed Jan 2017

Identifying Key Areas Of Worklife And Their Interactive Effect In Explaining Pakistani Nurses’ Burnout, Faisal Qadeer, Amnah Imtiaz, Imran Hameed

Management Faculty Publications

We examined the effect of incongruence in the areas of worklife (AWL) on burnout of nurses. Specifically, we were interested in identifying the most important AWL and interactions among AWL and psychological resilience in explaining nurses’ burnout. Incongruence in the worklife escalates burnout and resilience is a coping trait. The phenomenon needs to be studied in developing countries where entirely different health dilemmas exist. A cross sectional survey was conducted from 147 nurses. SEM through AMOS 21 and Process Macro of SPSS was used for data analysis. Two AWL namely control and reward, emerged out to be the most important …


Strategies To Minimize The Effects Of Information Security Threats On Business Performance, Stella Ifeyinwa Okoye Jan 2017

Strategies To Minimize The Effects Of Information Security Threats On Business Performance, Stella Ifeyinwa Okoye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Business leaders in Nigeria are concerned about the high rates of business failure and economic loss from security incidents and may not understand strategies for reducing the effects of information security threats on business performance. Guided by general systems theory and transformational leadership theory, the focus of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore the strategies small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) leaders use to minimize the effects of information security threats on business performance. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 5 SME leaders who worked in SME firms that support oil and gas industry sector in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, had …


Strategies For Effective Financial Management In Vincentian Small Businesses, Kishore Nalin Shallow Jan 2017

Strategies For Effective Financial Management In Vincentian Small Businesses, Kishore Nalin Shallow

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The lack of strategies for effective financial management has been an impediment to the survival and growth of many small businesses in Saint Vincent (St. Vincent), an island in the Caribbean. Inadequate adoption of strategies by small business owners is a prime contributing factor to small business failure. The purpose of this research was to identify strategies that small business owners use for effective financial management. Institutional theory served as the conceptual framework for this multiple case study. Participants consisted of 4 St. Vincent small business owners who had demonstrated effective financial management strategies in the operation of their businesses. …


The Andacollo's Mining Community: Ethnographic Work-Based Approach To Corporate Social Responsibility Policies And Practices, Ubirata De Oliveira Jan 2017

The Andacollo's Mining Community: Ethnographic Work-Based Approach To Corporate Social Responsibility Policies And Practices, Ubirata De Oliveira

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This ethnographic study was designed to explore the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the mining industry. The research addressed the impacts of a problematic, systemic, and ethnocentric (top-down) CSR approach driven by a transnational mining company, and proposed a novel cultural relativist (bottom-up) CSR approach looking at the social needs of the community. Solving the problem stemming from the ethnocentric approach is important for both the mining company and the community affected by the CSR program, as it will alter dynamics between actors and mitigate social conflicts. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that improve …


An Exploratory Study On The Improvement Of The Army Rapid Acquisition Process, Jason F. Tate Jan 2017

An Exploratory Study On The Improvement Of The Army Rapid Acquisition Process, Jason F. Tate

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since 2001, the Army has spent billions of dollars to develop, test, and procure equipment through the Army Rapid Acquisition Process (ARAP), a process at times used in place of the traditional Army Acquisition Process (AAP) when immediacy and customization are a priority. The ARAP was implemented to increase efficiency in delivering adequate equipment to soldiers. The ARAP has been criticized in the literature for its lack of efficiency and effectiveness in the field. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to examine ARAP deficiencies through the lens of a broad cross-section of Army acquisition functional area professionals. …


Exploring The Performance Of The Financial Service Cooperative Industry In Grenada, Rachael Annette Brown Jan 2017

Exploring The Performance Of The Financial Service Cooperative Industry In Grenada, Rachael Annette Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The 2008 financial crisis impacted the Caribbean financial sector with declining liquidity and profitability, and return on assets falling to 0.7% from 2.6%. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that credit union executives in Grenada used to consistently maintain profitability. The targeted study population consisted of four credit union executives responsible for operations, administration, and regulations in the financial service cooperative industry in Grenada. The social influence of power theory was the conceptual framework that grounded this study. The data collection process included semistructured interviews and document (annual reports and cooperative society laws) review. Data …


Effect Of 2007-2009 Economic Crisis And Dodd-Frank Legislation On The U.S. Banking Industry, Steven D. Simpson Jan 2017

Effect Of 2007-2009 Economic Crisis And Dodd-Frank Legislation On The U.S. Banking Industry, Steven D. Simpson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This correlation research study was used to investigate the impact of the Dodd-Frank legislation on the U.S. bank industry. The economic crisis of 2007-2009 had a global and significant financial impact, some of which still reverberates. In the United States, the reaction was The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which took effect July 21, 2010. This act has recently been the subject of academic research and remains debated in congress, with discussion focused on its repeal. The publicly available, secondary data set from banks' quarterly filed regulatory reporting provided the data used in this study. Every FDIC …


Nigerian Oil And Gas Industry Content Development Act's Perceived Performance Impact, Olakunle Thomas Ayoola Jan 2017

Nigerian Oil And Gas Industry Content Development Act's Perceived Performance Impact, Olakunle Thomas Ayoola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Petroleum-producing companies in Nigeria were forced to increase spending on Nigerian-sourced materials and services from $8 billion to $13 billion since 2010, due to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act. The act was enacted in 2010 to support local firms and improve the companies' performance. However, there is sparse research on how the act affected the companies' performance. This study was an examination of the impact of the act on the companies' performance. Bandura's social cognitive theory was the theoretical framework. The research questions of this descriptive correlational study were used to examine the act's effect on …


Social Responsibility Strategies To Improve Firm Performance, Dennis Vincent Reade Jan 2017

Social Responsibility Strategies To Improve Firm Performance, Dennis Vincent Reade

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Historical research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its influence on corporate financial and social results arrived at contradictory findings. Although 95% of the world's 250 largest corporations reported investing in CSR activities in 2011, some managers lack strategies to evaluate CSR effectiveness. This multiple case study explored strategies that 6 CSR managers with CSR oversight in privately owned companies in Brazil used to effectively enact CSR. The stakeholder theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through individual interviews and supplemented with company annual reports to explore the strategies managers employed to evaluate CSR effectiveness. Member …


Strategies Used By Nonprofit Leaders To Motivate Volunteers, Michael C. Williams Jan 2017

Strategies Used By Nonprofit Leaders To Motivate Volunteers, Michael C. Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A motivated volunteer workforce is essential to many nonprofit organizations and the success of the organizational leaders. The purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to explore motivational strategies used by 3 leaders of a nonprofit organization in Minnesota's Valley X through the conceptual lens of Maslow's theory of human motivation. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, organizational documents, and online databases. Using thematic analysis, 4 key themes emerged: process strengths, process opportunities, results strengths, and results opportunities. Open communication, appreciation events, building relationships, and recognition and rewards are strategies that nonprofit leaders can use to motivate their workforce, especially …


Amnesty As A Public Policy Tool For Countering Insurgence In Nigeria, Ayodeji A. Dada Jan 2017

Amnesty As A Public Policy Tool For Countering Insurgence In Nigeria, Ayodeji A. Dada

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although research has been done on amnesty, little is known about amnesty as a public policy tool toward countering insurgence in Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to examine the role of amnesty as a public policy tool. The research questions are: Is there a difference in people's view of amnesty that explain the relevance of infrastructural facilities to stimulate economic growth and development in Nigeria? And, are there specific citizen characteristics that explain the differences in the way citizens perceive amnesty as a public policy choice? The theoretical framework was based on Marx's ideology of conflict theory. This …


Work Engagement: Antecedents And Effects On Student Employee Academic Engagement, Chase V. Moore Jan 2017

Work Engagement: Antecedents And Effects On Student Employee Academic Engagement, Chase V. Moore

Honors Theses

Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study explores the effect of the resources student employees receive from management and from the nature of their work on their engagement at work and their engagement in academic pursuits. Student workers make up a significant pool of workers in our institutions of higher education and supporting academic achievement of student workers is consistent with our institutions' missions. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents (supervisory support, supervisory feedback, person-organization fit, and person-job fit) that affect levels of work engagement of students employed in educationally-situated work environments, and …


Recruitment And Selection In A Mass Hiring Event Of A Sme, Emily Sutphin Jan 2017

Recruitment And Selection In A Mass Hiring Event Of A Sme, Emily Sutphin

Honors Theses

Using a qualitative approach, I examined the relationship between formal recruitment and selection practices and the success of a mass hiring event in a small and medium sized enterprise (SME). For the purpose of my study, I will use prominent research in order to examine small and medium enterprises recruitment and selection processes and translate these findings to a mass hiring event with recruitment and selection. My literature review will help guide findings based on the qualitative data I collected. Data was drawn from observation, formal and informal interviews with key individuals within the company, and document analysis. A case …


Matching Corporate Social Responsibility Strategies To Organizational Goals, Jason P. Vitelli Jan 2017

Matching Corporate Social Responsibility Strategies To Organizational Goals, Jason P. Vitelli

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many Fortune 500 organizations have policies about corporate social responsibility (CSR), but the leaders struggle to implement CSR policies that match corporate stated goals and objectives. The purpose of this case study was to explore whether leaders' CSR strategies matched the goals and objectives of the company. Twenty individuals located in New York, NY, United States, with various management-level positions, and who had experiences with CSR in a Fortune 500 organization with a CSR policy, participated in the current study. The conceptual framework was corporate social responsibility stakeholder theory. Data collection consisted of a semistructured interview with the leaders about …


Cedar Falls Community Main Street: A Gap Analysis Of Customer & Business Owner Perceptions, Cassie Evers Jan 2017

Cedar Falls Community Main Street: A Gap Analysis Of Customer & Business Owner Perceptions, Cassie Evers

Honors Program Theses

Cedar Falls, Iowa is a small town of approximately 40,000 people, which has a traditional Main Street district, lined by historic buildings filled with shops, restaurants, offices, and apartments alike (“Current Cedar Falls, Iowa Population, Demographics and Stats”). This main street district is managed by an organization called Community Main Street. Cedar Falls Community Main Street (CMS) has done extensive research to gain an understanding of their market by surveying customers. However, they lack information on their business owners and managers’ opinions. This study focused on surveying area business owners to provide valuable information about business leaders’ opinions to Community …


Q: Since Marijuana Use Is Absolutely Prohibited Under Federal Law, Can An Employer Safely Fire An Employee Who Tests Positive For Cannabis? (A: Yes, No, Maybe, I Don't Know. Can You Repeat The Question? 1), Darrell M. Crosgrove, Michael T. Zugelder, Kimberly Nigem, Donald K. Wedding Jan 2017

Q: Since Marijuana Use Is Absolutely Prohibited Under Federal Law, Can An Employer Safely Fire An Employee Who Tests Positive For Cannabis? (A: Yes, No, Maybe, I Don't Know. Can You Repeat The Question? 1), Darrell M. Crosgrove, Michael T. Zugelder, Kimberly Nigem, Donald K. Wedding

Finance Faculty Publications

Twenty-nine states and three US territories offer medical marijuana prescriptions for their citizens, with others considering such. Some of these states make it a violation to terminate an employee for medical marijuana use. Federal laws make any marijuana possession or use a crime, and in some instances, require a drug-free workplace. Should employers enforce drug screening rules, or relax their standards and permit employees with prescriptions for medical marijuana to test positive provided work product is not affected? And can relaxing these standards be presented as a benefit to both employees that use medical marijuana, and those who do not? …


A Theory Of Structured Experience, Gary D. Ellis, Patti A. Freeman, Tazim Jamal, Jingxian Jiang Jan 2017

A Theory Of Structured Experience, Gary D. Ellis, Patti A. Freeman, Tazim Jamal, Jingxian Jiang

Faculty Publications

We extend Duerden, Ward, and Freeman’s [2015. “Conceptualizing Structured Experiences.” Journal of Leisure Research 47 (5): 601– 620] ‘structured experience’ framework by proposing a formal theory of structured experiences. The theory advances propositions about how leisure service providers may structure environments and interactions to facilitate specific subjective experiences for guests and participants. Following the Duerden, Ward, and Freeman (2015) paper, the theory of structured experience is an integration of literature from leisure studies, tourism, and marketing. Formal definitions are provided for four co-created subjective experiences: immersion, absorption, engagement, and deep structured experience. Propositions about specific strategies providers can use to …


Paper/Pencil Versus Online Data Collection: An Exploratory Study, Peter Ward, Taralyn Clark, Ramon Zabriskie, Trevor Morris Jan 2017

Paper/Pencil Versus Online Data Collection: An Exploratory Study, Peter Ward, Taralyn Clark, Ramon Zabriskie, Trevor Morris

Faculty Publications

Usage of online data-collection methods are increasing in leisure research. Some potential benefits to using online methods over traditional paper/pencil techniques include financial savings and easier access to large populations. Disadvantages, however, include difficulty in sample selection and variations of the instruments’ reliability. This study explores how subject responses potentially differ when collecting data online versus paper/pencil for six instruments commonly used within leisure research. A repeated measure design with paired sample t-tests and HLM was used with 207 college students to compare these methods of data collection. Responses differed between methods on three of the tested instruments. A general …


Driving Strategies In Performance Excellence, Nathan Lawrence Jan 2017

Driving Strategies In Performance Excellence, Nathan Lawrence

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Only a small number of U.S. businesses have implemented the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to improve their performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that executive business leaders use to implement the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The study population consisted of 6 business executives and 2 organizations in the U.S. state of Texas, all with experience in implementing the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The theory of high performance work systems provided the conceptual framework for the study. Data were gathered from interviews and record reviews that were conducted within the organizations. Inductive …


Improving Contract Management By The Government Contracting Officers' Representatives, Etta J. Waugh Jan 2017

Improving Contract Management By The Government Contracting Officers' Representatives, Etta J. Waugh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders in the Federal Government of the United States have a problem ensuring the contract management resources used to administer and monitor contracts meet organizational performance goals. Contracting officer's representatives (CORs) are members of the acquisition workforce responsible for contract management. This study explored the ways in which resource-based strategies can improve the quality of CORs' performance in contract management by exploring an organizational framework based on strategic management approaches. Interview data were collected from 41 CORs from the 10 Federal Government agencies that represented 85% of the fiscal year 2014 expenditures. These CORs had all managed contracts with successful …


Strategies For Recruiting Cybersecurity Professionals In The Financial Service Industry, Iva Walters Jan 2017

Strategies For Recruiting Cybersecurity Professionals In The Financial Service Industry, Iva Walters

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The cybersecurity market is the fastest growing market in the United States; as such, leaders in financial institutions recognize their businesses are vulnerable, as money is accessible within computerized banking systems. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore what strategies financial service leaders- use to recruit cybersecurity professionals. The conceptual framework for this study was the hierarchy of needs and stakeholder management theory. Data collection involved company archival documents and semistructured, open-ended interviews with 5 financial service leaders in the Midlands area of South Carolina who recruited skilled cybersecurity professionals to support long-term business sustainability. Coding, clustering, …


Role Of Middle Managers In Mitigating Employee Cyberloafing In The Workplace, Anizizo Aku Jan 2017

Role Of Middle Managers In Mitigating Employee Cyberloafing In The Workplace, Anizizo Aku

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Companies in the United States are concerned about the indeterminate effectiveness of corporate cyberloafing mitigation efforts leading to the persistence of employee cyberloafing behavior. Although middle managers are the driving force behind the transformational influences that guide employee productivity and could proffer practical solutions, a lack of clarity surrounds the middle manager's role in the overall cyberloafing mitigation efforts within organizations. The central research question for this transcendental phenomenological research study explored the lived experiences of middle managers regarding their roles in mitigating employee cyberloafing at higher education institutions in Florida. This study used a social constructivist-interpretive framework that draws …


Strategic Alignment Of Information Technology Projects And Project Success, Joan Barnes Jan 2017

Strategic Alignment Of Information Technology Projects And Project Success, Joan Barnes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Alignment of information technology (IT) projects remains a concern for business executives and negatively impacts IT investments through failed projects. Drawing from the theory of systems thinking and the concept of holism, the purpose of this correlational study was to provide executive leaders with information about influences associated with the independent variables of project alignment and performance outputs, and the dependent variable, project success rates. Accordingly, the research question addressed the relationship between the 2-predictor variables and the outcome variable. Data collection involved a nonprobability, purposive sample of 49 credentialed project managers from Arizona who completed an online survey. Results …