Business Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Housing Affordability Crisis: Private Equity Or Legislation Issue, Jack Polk

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The aim of this thesis is to explore the claim that private equity investment is the cause of the modern unaffordability in the single family housing market. Through empirical study and historical research we found that the footprint of institutional investors in this space is insignificant. However, legislative errors which have artificially inflated demand and suppressed supply over the past decade have greatly contributed to the crisis and must be corrected for the long term health of the housing space. These corrections will focus primarily in the alleviation of supply pressures for new development and the continuation of the low …

Wakesurf Nwa: A Surfing Entertainment Business Plan, Ethan Carney

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

WakeSurf NWA is a thrilling entertainment facility that will fill a void in this highly affluent market. Our design is to bring surfing where surfing has never been before, in a land-locked location. With high-tech engineering to allow surfing on land, WakeSurf NWA will provide real surfing to the people in and around Northwest Arkansas. Our company will also be built around helping our community, donating a portion of proceeds to a local nonprofit. What sets WakeSurf NWA apart from other companies in the area is how we will bring something completely new to the region that can be enjoyed …

Understanding Romania's Poverty: A Historical Overview Of Economics And Politics And Their Implications On Poverty Today, Benjamin Bucur

Senior Honors Theses

Romania is a country with a high-income economy that is experiencing considerable growth following its economic reforms of earlier decades. With growth, tendencies for an unequal society are prevalent. Therefore, appropriate economic policies that are specifically targeted toward bottlenecks are essential. This thesis seeks to outline the major types of poverty in Romania while also offering actionable entrepreneurial and educational insights that practically combat poverty at its roots.

Performance Of Technological Startups: The Interaction Of R&D And Founding Team Human Capital, Qian Ye, Weijun Zheng

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

This study examines the impacts of R&D on new-born startups’ revenue during the 0-3 age period, as well as investigating the moderating role of founding team human capital in the R&D-revenue relationship. The sample is from a longitudinal panel data from the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS), including a total of 1369 technology-based startups established in year 2004 and a total of 286 founding teams. Consistent with findings of previous research, results of this study suggest that startups who engage in R&D investments and activities in gestation/initial stage of business development have significant higher likelihood of obtaining high revenue in the …

Raise The Bar: A Study Of Motivation And Locus Of Control In Relation To Exercise Adherence, Zachary Bertolino

Honors Projects in Business

This paper will examine factors attributed to exercise adherence, and what relationships exist between motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic), locus of control (internal and external) and adherence. The purpose of this study is to determine what combination of motivation and locus of control is the best predictor of exercise adherence. The hypothesis states that an individual who is intrinsically motivated and has an internal locus of control will be most likely to maintain exercise behavior over an extended period. Existing literature has shown that both intrinsic sources of motivation and an internal locus of control are related to adherence in other …

Things To Consider Before Co-Signing A Loan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

In the context of family farms, includes some general points to consider before you sign a loan guarantee for a family member who is heavily in debt.

Conclusion: Having to consider whether to co-sign a child's loan is a very difficult situation-no one wants to be part of losing part of the family farm or ranch to loan foreclosure. But if the loan guarantee isn't part of a financial turnaround plan that has at least a fighting chance of success, don't sign the guarantee unless you absolutely don't need the money for your own retirement.

Entrepreneurial Resilience, A Key Soft Skill To Develop In A Crisis Situation: Proposal For A Measurement Scale, Hajer Najeh, Salim Morched

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

Any resilient development that enables an entrepreneur to overcome a crisis is seen as an essential feature of the entrepreneur's profile. In order to acquire this quality, we must first understand how entrepreneurs perceive and assess their level of resilience. This involves defining the concept by identifying its underlying dimensions to conceptualize and measure it. Thus, this article presents the different stages of building a scale to assess the level of resilience of Tunisian entrepreneurs. These measures are based on a survey of 152 entrepreneurs following the paradigm of Churchill (1979). This paradigm allows the rigorous construction of questionnaire-type measurement …

Entrepreneurship And Decision Making: Have Your Cake And Eat It Too, Rhonda Richards, Courtney Kernek, Kendra Ingram, Kitty Campbell

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

Caked Up! is a small, local bakery in Oklahoma owned and operated by cake designer Lauran Fuller. Caked Up! serves cake, cupcakes, house-made ice cream, coffee, and an assortment of baked goods, including cake pops. In addition, they offer custom cake orders for special occasions. In March of 2014, Lauran opened the Caked Up! retail storefront. The case explains Lauran’s bakery from passion to performance, and gives an overview of the internal and external factors that have influenced its growth. In September of 2018, there were three key issues that Lauran is considering to improve Caked Up!’s likelihood of success: …

Social Media Impact On Entrepreneurship Intention: Lessons Learned From Business Startuppers, Panagiotis Mallios, Leonidas Zampetakis, Vassilis Moustakis

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

The potential impact of social media use on the development of entrepreneurial intention has received little attention. In addressing this gap, research reported herein extends entrepreneurial intention literature by explicitly incorporating social media use. Inquiry investigates development of intention via specific social media factors that influence intention through its antecedents, namely, perceived entrepreneurial desirability and perceived entrepreneurial feasibility. The article summarizes the salient aspects of a quantitative study of social media usage and startup entrepreneurial intention in Greece. Based on the entrepreneurship event model, theory of planned behavior and technology acceptance and adoption models, this article examines potential social media …

Rural Entrepreneurs Under Fire: Pandemic Reveals Need For Collaboration And Support, Jacob A. Dolence, James C. Haug

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

This article summarizes a research study done from April 2020 until April 2021 to examine the challenges, response, and tactics, of entrepreneurs in rural southern Virginia. In particular, the research goes into depth of how the COVID-19 pandemic effected operations, how entrepreneurs responded, and what measures they took to stay viable. Finally, the article proposes a framework for rapid response in the case of future pandemics, natural disasters, or economic events that cause similar disruptions.

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Innovation Ecosystems In Facilitating The Adoption Of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Dana Sami Bakry

Dissertations and Theses

Sustainable entrepreneurship has a substantial role of a steadily growing economy and advanced industrial economies. Several strategies have been formed and employed to support the adoption of innovation and technologies in the sustainable entrepreneurship sector. However, the successful outcome of these strategies in achieving their goals depends on how effective they are in satisfying their objectives and thus increasing innovation adoption. One measurement for effectiveness of ecosystem implements can be their support to the input of the process of innovation and technologies adoption and their impact on satisfying regional goals.

The objective of this research is evaluating the effectiveness of …

Fraud And The Audit Expectation Gap, Samuel Pelumi Olatunde

Honors College Theses

This study seeks to explore the expectation gap Georgia Southern University business and non-business majors have toward the work of an auditor. This study aims to assess the understanding of Auditors' responsibility for preventing and detecting fraud. This study will help assess the roles of an auditor, a forensic accountant, and management in fraud detection and prevention. The study will also highlight the importance of equipping students with accounting knowledge relevant to the business environment. The research for the study is conducted through a survey questionnaire and interpreted with Excel software. The hypothesis is that students that are majoring in …

The Mullet Coffee Shop And Tap House Business Plan, Baylor K. Bumford

Honors College Theses

This is a full business plan for a coffee shop and beer establishment in the city of Austin, Texas. Austin is the fastest growing city in the United States and an epicenter for both the coffee and brewery industries. Utilizing industry analysis, macro-environment analysis, marketing and financial research and personal interviews with twenty-seven potential customers in the area, a business plan of sufficient rigor to attract financing from a bank or investor has been prepared.

Bridging The Gap Between Skidmore Students And Local Businesses, Charlotte Benson

Self-Determined Majors Final Projects

Skidmore students are an underutilized customer base for small businesses in Saratoga Springs. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the purchasing behaviors of Skidmore students in order to determine how local small businesses can better attract them as customers. Current Skidmore students were surveyed and interviewed to ascertain overarching patterns in their purchasing habits. Results show that word of mouth and social media are influential at Skidmore, but are underutilized by local businesses. Findings also suggest that purchasing habits are largely formed during students’ first year at Skidmore. Finally, interview and survey results indicate that Skidmore students most …

Exploring The Development Of An Agribusiness Ecosystem For Singapore: Lessons From Taiwan, Kuo-Chang Fu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The COVID-19 pandemic and complex global circumstances have prompted a heightened level of apprehension about food security in Singapore. With a land area of slightly over 700 square kilometers, of which a mere 1% is dedicated to agricultural purposes, Singapore's overall level of food self-sufficiency is less than 10%. Historically, Singapore has relied on imports to address its food deficits. However, due to the pandemic's impact and geopolitical tensions, which have resulted in instability within the global supply chain, Singapore is now compelled to re-evaluate its approach to food security. Consequently, there has been a substantial focus on exploring strategies …

Building A Society Of Trust: Innovation And The Future Of Youth Employment In Jordan, Pierre Cativiela

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The word startup is perhaps an unlikely word that comes to mind when discussing shifting dynamics in the Middle East – this is rapidly changing. In the past two decades, Arab entrepreneurs have emerged from across the region as key players in the paradigm of national economic visions. Within these plans, innovation will become the epicenter for public-private partnerships. Such collaboration will contribute to tackling youth unemployment, the region’s most pressing contemporary problem, as well as diversifying local economies. The research delves into the complexities and history of entrepreneurship in Jordan as one of the region’s pioneering nations, examining the …

Research On The Relationship Between Service-Oriented Manufacturing Platforms And Customer Enterprise Innovation — Evidence From The 3d Printing Industry, Donglai Zhao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are highly flexible and creative and play a significant role in the national economy and in employment, innovation, and entrepreneurship. However, due to their relatively small size, low technical level, lack of funds and talent, and backward management, they generally face development predicaments, such as the pressure to survive and weak anti-risk abilities. Therefore, in addition to leveraging their initiative to develop their competitive strength, making full use of external public service resources has become one approach MSMEs can take to find a way out of such predicaments. Various service-oriented manufacturing platform enterprises have …

Fail Fast, Learn Fast: Understanding The Process Of Learning From Failure In Smes, Nikolina Koporcic, David Sjödin, Marko Kohtamäki, Vinit Parida

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2023

‘Fail fast and learn fast’ is a common principle advanced to quickly grow and scale startups and SMEs. However, the literature is lacking detailed insights into how such learning processes are organized. The paper aims to investigate how knowledge-intensive SMEs learn from failures through organizational learning processes. Case studies of three high-tech SMEs that operate in a highly dynamic context are presented. The findings are summarized in the learning from failure process, which includes three phases, each with underlying sub-activities and principles: 1) failure recognition, 2) interactive sensemaking, and 3) organizational adaptation. We summarize our insights into a framework disentangling …

Multinational Family Firms’ Internationalization Depth And Breadth Following The Global Financial Crisis, Sebastian P. L. Fourné, Miriam Zschoche, Christian Schwens, Reddi Kotha

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines how large family firms react to a macroeconomic shock in terms of their internationalization depth and breadth. Building on new internalization theory and acknowledging the dysfunctional manifestations of bifurcation bias in large family-owned MNEs, we argue that an unexpected shock induces family firms to recombine their family firm-specific resources with their thus far underutilized or unequally treated nonfamily resources. This recombination allows most family firms to economize on bifurcation bias and leverage their resources as firm-specific advantages (FSAs) resulting in an increased depth and breadth of internationalization post shock (while some of them may continue to suffer …

Legitimate Business As Mission Ventures And Effective Witness, Summer Rogers

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the practice of missionaries creating cover businesses solely for visa purposes, which brings a dishonest presence and harms the ministry. In contrast, Business as Mission (BAM) is a strategic business model to bring the gospel overseas through social, economic, and spiritual impact. Through a literature review, best practices for legitimate BAM ventures are explored based on studies done by BAM professionals and experts. Research shows that Christian businesspeople can establish an authentic image and credible witness through BAM businesses that are integrated into the local community, generate a profit, and incorporate biblical principles into business operations. BAM …

Back To Eden: A Practical Ecotheology And Entrepreneurial Endeavor, Laura W. Gordon

Doctor of Ministry

Back to Eden (BTE) practical ecotheology is a presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, anchored in the Garden of Eden story, before the fall of mankind, enculturated in an African ethos within various African perspectives, traditions, and worldviews. It is useful to reclaim God-given African Christian identity and agency. Essentially, BTE ecotheology is mankind divinely integrated vertically with God and horizontally with humanity and His creation, based on Genesis 1–2. It is an appeal to become deeply rooted in the Spiritual soil of divine truth, to become entrenched in the incarnate Son, and to become planted as an ecological …

Gender And Entrepreneurial Traits Using The Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile (Emp) Assessment, Jordon Browning Clark

Haslam Scholars Projects

This thesis explores the relationship between gender and entrepreneurship at the undergraduate level at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. The study aims to identify the impact of gender on entrepreneurial skills and the development of these skills over the course of the semester. The research is quantitative and based on the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile (EMP) Assessment; undergraduate students in Entrepreneurship 350 took the assessment at the beginning and end of the Fall 2022 semester. The study seeks to uncover gender-based differences in entrepreneurial traits and skills and the effects of entrepreneurship education on these traits and skills. The findings suggest that …

Sustainable Small House Project, Mollie Jo George

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The Sustainable Small House Project was developed in cooperation with UNO/UNL Engineering, UNO Gerontology, and Metro Community College. This project merges both sustainable living with the small house movement to promote aging-in-place for older adults. This presentation describes the journey of Dr. Bing Chen as he envisioned the Sustainable Small House Project to its development and finally to implementation at its current location--west of Baxter Arena or adjacent to the UNO ballfield.

From a gerontological lens, the project focuses on principles of universal design which allows for aging-in-place, fall-detection and prevention using smart technologies such as Nobi, and voice-activated technologies …

On The State Of Academic Journals And The Value Of Jnams, Michael E. Dobbs

Journal of the North American Management Society

No abstract provided.

Seeming Ethical Makes You Attractive: Unraveling How Ethical Perceptions Of Ai In Hiring Impacts Organizational Innovativeness And Attractiveness, Serge P. Da Motta Veiga, Maria Figueroa-Armijos, Brent B. Clark

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

More organizations use AI in the hiring process than ever before, yet the perceived ethicality of such processes seems to be mixed. With such variation in our views of AI in hiring, we need to understand how these perceptions impact the organizations that use it. In two studies, we investigate how ethical perceptions of using AI in hiring are related to perceptions of organizational attractiveness and innovativeness. Our findings indicate that ethical perceptions of using AI in hiring are positively related to perceptions of organizational attractiveness, both directly and indirectly via perceptions of organizational innovativeness, with variations depending on the …

Are Accounting Gurus In Sync With Petty Traders’ Indigenous And Innovative Record-Keeping?, Aborampah Amoah-Mensah Dr.

The Qualitative Report

Although record-keeping by small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) has been extensively researched, there is a paucity of research on indigenous and innovative record-keeping. This paper examines the indigenous and innovative record-keeping practices of petty traders in Kumasi, Ghana, with a focus on how they gain a competitive advantage. In addition, it aims to derive a theoretical model from the findings of the study using grounded theory. Lastly, this research seeks to understand if academic and accounting practitioners are in sync with petty traders’ record-keeping. The results from focus group discussions show that petty traders engage in both indigenous (stones or …

The Process Of The Intergenerational Succession Of Leadership In A Family Business, Bojan Dolar, Roberto Biloslavo

Economic and Business Review

Background and objective: In this paper, we explore first-generation leadership succession in family businesses which, despite extensive literature on the subject, remains insufficiently understood. Our goal is to acquire new knowledge and understanding regarding this phenomenon with a view to making it more effective.

Method: The basis of our research is a qualitative multiple case study that includes six medium-sized manufacturing family businesses. We conducted semi-structured interviews with incumbents, successors and family representatives, and analysed the data obtained using the content analysis method.

Results: The data analysis and interpretation led to a definition of the category “The way ahead: the …

Startup Life May Stop Here: Helping Women Entrepreneurs In Sub-Saharan Africa, Amr Swid, Emily Rukobo, Elizabeth Maro

Journal of Global Business Insights

A great emphasis exists in research on entrepreneurs who start small- to medium-size businesses and who are seizing opportunities outside the corporate world, especially in developing countries like Tanzania. Women entrepreneurs have the highest representation of all entrepreneurs in the Sub-Saharan region. Entrepreneurs everywhere face unique hardships that could determine the fate of their businesses. Women entrepreneurs in the Sub-Saharan region have additional struggles to start and sustain their businesses. The participants in this study were randomly selected from women entrepreneurs who participated in the 2017 NYIT Launch in Moshi, Tanzania. The researchers conducted virtual qualitative interviews and focus groups …

What Is The Entrepreneurship Process For Communication Design Enterprises?, Con Kennedy

Doctoral

The literature indicated that entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in economic development and that understanding what entrepreneurship is has changed with the development of society and entrepreneurship theory (Murphy et al., 2006). However, there is an identified skills deficit in understanding entrepreneurship in the communication design sector (Design Enterprise Skillnet, 2021; Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, 2016; Intertrade Ireland, 2009; Design Council, 2007; Enterprise Ireland, 1999). Nevertheless, within each of these studies, the deficit has not been addressed, nor is the entrepreneurship process for communication design enterprises established. The literature on entrepreneurship generally ignores entrepreneurship in the design sector, …

Is That An Opportunity?: Global Versus Local Processing Of Technological And Socioeconomic Constraints, Eric Shaunn Mattingly, Manju K. Ajuja, Andrew S. Manikas, Trayan N. Kushev

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Opportunity beliefs lead entrepreneurs to explore or walk away from opportunities. The dominant process for explaining opportunity beliefs is structural alignment theory’s analogical problem solving of information. Information can be conceptualized according to its structure with some information presented as separate pieces of information (local) and others as aggregated information (global). We conducted an experiment with 116 upper-level managers and engineers, and found that structural and procedural similarities between technologies and socioeconomic conditions of markets drive opportunity beliefs. We found that the constraining effects of technological and socioeconomic differences on opportunity beliefs are contingent on individuals’ global versus local processing.