Business Commons^™

Assessing The Effect Of The Magnitude Of Spillovers On Global Supply Chains Using Quantile Vector Autoregressive And Wavelet Approaches, Haibo Wang, Lutfu Sagbansua, Jaime Ortiz

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Overwhelmed by the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chains are being restructured and improved worldwide. It then becomes essential to accurately assess their vulnerabilities to external shocks and understand the relationships between key influential factors to obtain the desired results. This study provides a new conceptual econometric framework to examine the relationships between the purchasing managers’ index, service purchasing managers’ index, world equity index, unemployment rate, food and beverage historical prices, Baltic Dry Index, West Texas Intermediate Index, and carbon emissions. A quantile vector autoregressive (QVAR) model is used to assess the dynamic connectedness among Brazil, Russia, …

The Provenances And Postscripts Of 1989, Jokubas Salyga

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The books under review exemplify some of the finest recent work on the historically informed political economy of Central and Eastern Europe. While different in their conceptual frameworks and geographical foci, the titles converge in the advancement of nuanced and convincing arguments, displaying both theoretical acuity and empirical depth to great effect. Bartel, Fabry, and Pula all share a resolute dedication to illuminating the under-explored provenances of neoliberalism and/or globalization in the region, that predate the annus mirabilis of 1989. Their contributions situate the ‘Eastern bloc’ states within the contours of evolving global political economy and the existential crises engulfing …

Customer Value Co-Creation: Environmental Sustainability As A Tourist Experience, Esi A. Elliot, Russell P. Adams, Ernest Kafui Kwasi Tsetse

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasingly, environmental sustainability has become an important consideration for customer value co-creation, which is collaboration between a firm-provider and its customers to jointly create value. Our research question is therefore “how does customer value co-creation (CVC) enhance environmental sustainability?” We argue that attention to CVC globally would significantly enhance environmental sustainability in emerging markets. The findings of the study revealed that firms that do not enhance customer engagement and their environmental sustainability will lose patronage. Secondly, the attitude of most of these tourists who continually visit unclean tourism destinations such as littered beaches and polluted water bodies would continue to …

A Conceptual Review Of Sustainable Development Goal 17: Picturing Politics, Proximity And Progress, Joanna Stanberry, Janis Bragan Balda

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

We outline the discursive origins of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, describing its ambiguous marching orders, which are further confused by shifting and contested stakeholder approaches. The widespread effect is to obscure the primary aim of making the tropics and other vulnerable countries more resilient, and also globally overcoming barriers to their development. We argue that ecological reflexivity, as developed and advanced by deliberative democracy and the Earth System Governance Project, belongs at the apex of those capacities needed for implementing the Agenda for Transformation. Ecological reflexivity conceptually grounds inclusive, open, critical, and consequential engagement of discourses situated …

The Pathway To The Natural Gas Industry: Financial Development, Coal Consumption, And Carbon Dioxide Emissions In P.R. China, Teng Tong, Jaime Ortiz, Haibo Wang

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper revisits the causal links between financial development, coal consumption, and CO2 emissions in P.R. China over the 1977–2017 period to validate the development of its natural gas industry. It uses a Bootstrap ARDL bound test with structural breaks to establish stationarity, short- and long-run dynamics, and causality of the series. The results show there are no long-run relationships among these three variables, but a Granger causality test does indicate the presence of both a two-way Granger causality between coal consumption and CO2 emissions, and a one-way Granger causality running from financial development to both coal consumption and CO2 …

A Sustainable Digital Ecosystem: Digital Servitization Transformation And Digital Infrastructure Support, Yan Chen, Zijin Wang, Jaime Ortiz

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

While the notion of digitalization and sustainability has become prominent in current research, more can be done to bridge these two concepts and explain the interaction between them. Plenty of literature has focused on the impact of digital technology applications and business model innovations on environmental performance but has not considered the counterforce of environmental performance on digitalization. We investigated this question from the perspective of digital ecosystem architects to explore more organic relationships. By analyzing data from 1083 listed firms from 2014 to 2019, we found various effective paths for architects to participate in the digital ecosystem and determined …

Exploring Mexican Attitudes Toward The Front Labeling System For Food And Beverages: A Twitter Analysis, Monica D. Hernandez, Edith Galy

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recently, the Mexican government implemented a simple labeling system that would apply to 85% of the food products. The aim of the system is to report high amounts of calories, sugars, sodium, fats and trans fats. Labels are displayed on the front of the package individually or in groups. No studies have been conducted to analyze public attitudes toward the labeling system. In order to fill this gap, the purpose of the study is to conduct an exploratory analysis of the Mexican attitudes toward the new labeling system on Twitter. The Twitter API was used to collect tweets published between …

Digital Financial Services And Strategic Financial Management: Financial Services Firms And Microenterprises In African Markets, Esi A. Elliot, Carmina Cavazos, Benjamin Ngugi

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study highlights the impact of digital financial services as enhancing the capacity of development goals as well as social sustainability. The selected emerging markets are Ghanaian financial service providers (FSP)s and microenterprise customers (CME)s, where we examine how “Ubuntu”, an African philosophy of humanism, legitimizes spaces for a more democratic, egalitarian, and ethical engagement of human beings. This study adopts a grounded theory methodology for investigation of the phenomena with a sample size of 70 relationship managers. The findings further existing sustainability literature pertaining to social sustainability and consumer wellbeing. We contribute to theory by presenting a psychological perspective …

How Do Digital Lives Affect Resident Mental Health In The Digital Era? Empirical Evidence Based On Chinese General Social Survey, Yan Chen, Mengyang Wei, Jaime Ortiz

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Having good mental health means we are better able to connect, function, cope and thrive. The widespread application of digital technology in daily life provides new ways and promising tools for residents to maintain their mental health. Given the importance of mental health for everyone, and the fact that mental health problems are prevalent worldwide, this study discusses how digital lives affects the mental health of residents. The results suggest that digital lives are significantly and positively associated with mental health. Mechanisms analysis identifies personal perceptions (self-rated physical exercise and subjective wellbeing) as the important paths for digital lives to …

Constructing An Intelligent Model Based On Support Vector Regression To Simulate The Solubility Of Drugs In Polymeric Media, Sait Senceroglu, Mohamed Arselene Ayari, Tahereh Rezaei, Fardad Faress, Amith Khandakar, Muhammad E. H. Chowdhury, Zanko Hassan Jawhar

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study constructs a machine learning method to simultaneously analyze the thermodynamic behavior of many polymer–drug systems. The solubility temperature of Acetaminophen, Celecoxib, Chloramphenicol, D-Mannitol, Felodipine, Ibuprofen, Ibuprofen Sodium, Indomethacin, Itraconazole, Naproxen, Nifedipine, Paracetamol, Sulfadiazine, Sulfadimidine, Sulfamerazine, and Sulfathiazole in 1,3-bis[2-pyrrolidone-1-yl] butane, Polyvinyl Acetate, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), PVP K12, PVP K15, PVP K17, PVP K25, PVP/VA, PVP/VA 335, PVP/VA 535, PVP/VA 635, PVP/VA 735, Soluplus analyzes from a modeling perspective. The least-squares support vector regression (LS-SVR) designs to approximate the solubility temperature of drugs in polymers from polymer and drug types and drug loading in polymers. The structure of this machine …

Introducing A Linear Empirical Correlation For Predicting The Mass Heat Capacity Of Biomaterials, Reza Iranmanesh, Afham Pourahmad, Fardad Faress, Sevil Tutunchian, Mohammad Amin Ariana, Hamed Sadeqi, Saleh Hosseini, Falah Alobaid, Babak Aghel

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study correlated biomass heat capacity (Cp) with the chemistry (sulfur and ash content), crystallinity index, and temperature of various samples. A five-parameter linear correlation predicted 576 biomass Cp samples from four different origins with the absolute average relative deviation (AARD%) of ~1.1%. The proportional reduction in error (REE) approved that ash and sulfur contents only enlarge the correlation and have little effect on the accuracy. Furthermore, the REE showed that the temperature effect on biomass heat capacity was stronger than on the crystallinity index. Consequently, a new three-parameter correlation utilizing crystallinity index and temperature was developed. This model was …

A Decomposed Data Analysis Approach To Assessing City Sustainable Development Performance: A Network Dea Model With A Slack-Based Measure, Bowen Sun, Haibo Wang, Jaime Ortiz, Jun Huang, Can Zhao, Zelang Wang

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper deals with urban sustainable development in China. We propose a network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with a slack-based measure (SBM) to analyze the eco-efficiency of 284 Chinese cities, enabling us to find a way to open the “black box” in conventional DEA models and introduce social well-being factors into the model, and depict the role of local government in providing public service and improving social well-beings. We set up a framework of urban development by dividing the process of into two steps. The first stage is a production system translating inputs and natural resources into GDP and …

Africa Meets America: The Impact Of Collectivism And Individualism On Attitude Towards Shopping, Charles Blankson, Thuy Nguyen, Esi A. Elliot, Sayed Abbas Ahmed, Pumela Msweli

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

The adoption of marketing strategy does not occur in cultural vacuums. Instead, marketing strategies unfold within social contexts that encode values, beliefs, and patterns of behavior. The increasingly inter-dependent global economy results in the acculturation of tensions between global and local consumer cultures. This dynamism however offers new opportunities for international firms to redefine and reevaluate their glocal (global/local) marketing strategies. Relying on Triandis cultural dimensions, this research contributes to international marketing literature by answering two key research questions, namely, what are the differences between African (Ghanaian) and American consumers’ cultural characteristics? and how do the cultural differences explain attitude …

The Game Of Teaching Resource Allocation, Ryan Samuel Sale

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

In response to the increased prevalence of remote learning, and exhortation that educators adopt more experiential pedagogy, a methodology is presented to use a free, commercially available game to teach a variety of resource allocation problems in various disciplines. The use of games to provide experiential learning has been shown to increase student enjoyment and mastery of learning outcomes. The technique is appropriate for students at different levels from secondary school through graduate-level university instruction. The lack of cost to the student or university coupled with the ease of adaptability of the game makes the technique widely available to all …

Multilevel Perspectives On Leadership In The African Context, Michael A. Abebe, Amanuel G. Tekleab, Augustine A. Lado

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the depth of research on leaders and leadership in the Western and Asian contexts, the study of leadership in the African context remains at a nascent stage. In this special issue, we take a multilevel perspective to review and synthesize current research on leadership in Africa in three distinct scholarly domains (Organizational Behavior & Human Resources (OB/HR), Strategy and Entrepreneurship). Based on this review, we offer specific recommendations to advance leadership research and improve the scope and rigor of theoretical and methodological approaches. Finally, we present three scholarly works that highlight the distinctive nature of leadership in Africa, including …

Economic Growth, Energy Consumption, And Carbon Dioxide Emissions In The E7 Countries: A Bootstrap Ardl Bound Test, Teng Tong, Jaime Ortiz, Chuanhua Xu, Fangjhy Li

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

International awareness of the impact of global warming and climate change is increasing. Developing countries face the task of achieving sustainable economic growth while also improving the efficiency of their energy consumption. The E7 countries (Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, People’s Republic of China, Russia, and Turkey) are all highly concerned with the promotion of carbon-emission-reduction strategies.

Methods

This research uses a bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test with structural breaks to examine the cointegration and causality relations between economic growth, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the E7 countries.

Results

There is no cointegration between economic …

Construction Of Open Innovation Ecology On The Internet: A Case Study Of Xiaomi (China) Using Institutional Logic, Jaime Ortiz, Hao Ren, Kei Li, An Zhang

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

The characteristics of collaborative innovation and interactions among core enterprises, users, and partners are critical. Research is lacking on how to construct open innovation ecology through institutional design. This study explores how core enterprises effectively motivate users and partners to participate in innovation activities on the Internet and successfully constructing open innovation ecology, using the institutional logic theory and an exploratory case study of Xiaomi, a famous Chinese Internet enterprise. The findings are as follows: (1) three main characteristics of innovation carried out by core enterprises, users, and partners in the open innovation ecology—iterative innovation, social innovation, and joint innovation; …

How Do Consumers Adopt Imported Products In An Era Of Product Overcrowding?, Miguel Sahagun, Arturo Z. Vasquez-Parraga

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

When individuals decide to adopt imported products, they associate these products with one or more places. Thus, consumers are likely to think about the new cultures, ideas, and behaviors associated with these places. When adopting imported products some consumers seek some type of novelty without altering existing decisional and/or behavioral structures whereas other consumers seek novelty to create new consumption situations. Nonetheless, current research has failed to explain how determinant the influence of the product’s place and the process of adopting this product are on consumer’s purchase intention. Therefore, this research analyzes: 1) the influence of the product’s place market …

Fragmentation And Segmentation: Marketing Global Benefits, Russell P. Adams

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Though consumption culture and globalization are major themes impacting the modern landscape, there has been limited research in these areas due to, in part, the increasing fragmentation of markets. A case is made that the seemingly disparate views, cultural fragmentation and global segmentation can be harmonized. This paper presents a theoretical framework to understand how the fragmentation of markets and global segmentation strategies can be compatible. Due to the cultural convergence brought on by globalization and marketing intermediaries, global segments can be identified through the common needs sought by consumers.

The Effect Of Using E-Learning Tools In Online And Campus-Based Classrooms On Student Performance, Edith Galy, Clara Downey, Jennie Johnson

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Creating an integrative research framework that extends a model frequently used in the Information Systems field, the Technology Acceptance Model, together with variables used in the Education field, this empirical study investigates the factors influencing student performance as reflected by their final course grade. The Technology Acceptance Model explains computer acceptance in general terms. The model measures the impact of external variables on internal beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use, two main constructs in the model, refer to an individual's perception of how the adoption of a new technology will increase their efficiency, and the …

Hospital Investments In High Technology And Community Services: The Role Of Local Market Uninsurance, Lakshmi Balasubramanian

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Research in the area of financing and investment decisions made by firms focuses on maximization of shareholder wealth in an open corporation with clear separation of ownership and management. The inherent profit motive leaves no ambiguity in investment decision-making. On the other hand, several other factors come into play when the organization making the investment decision is non-profit. This dissertation investigates the influence that community uninsurance may have on investment decisions in hospitals, most of which operate as non-profit ventures. Unlike other types of non-profit organizations, hospitals do not focus on a target consumer base to generate revenues. Instead, every …

International Strategic Alliances: Identifying Objective Performance Measures, Russell P. Adams, Clara Downey

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

With the acceleration of globalization, International Strategic Alliances (ISA) are increasingly playing a critical role in a firm’s strategic arsenal. Despite its importance, measuring an ISA’s success is difficult due to the reticence of failing partnerships to announce these issues. This paper presents an analysis of 29 alliances from 18 countries and 5 industries. The success or failure of these alliances was analyzed utilizing ROA, ROE, ROI, and operating margin as the variables of performance measurement. Discriminant Analysis demonstrates that operating margin correctly classifies the success of an alliance 70% of the time.

Does Within-Culture Variation Matter? An Empirical Study Of Computer Usage, Mark Srite, Jason Bennett Thatcher, Edith Galy

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines within-culture variance in the influence of values on perceptions and use of information technology (IT). Based on cross-cultural research, we suggest that cultural values influence technology acceptance and use. Specifically, we argue that masculinity/femininity and individualism/collectivism directly influence personal innovativeness with IT, computer anxiety, and computer self-efficacy, and have a mediated effect on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and use of IT. Overall, analysis provides support for the research model. Our results suggest that masculinity/femininity influences computer selfefficacy, computer anxiety, and personal innovativeness with IT. We also offer implications for research and practice.

Recent Developments In Selected Asian Countries’ Bankruptcy Laws: Should Multinational Company Strategists Be Concerned, Jane Lemaster, Clara Downey, Francis J. Brewerton

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explains why multinational companies should be concerned about adjudication of international insolvencies. The Territorialism and Universalism Models of bankruptcy law are reviewed and employed as a backdrop to describe recent developments in the insolvency laws of four Asian nations. We conclude with an assessment of the status of the selected Asian nations’ insolvency laws, progress toward a uniform global system for resolving multinational insolvencies, and the strategic implications these developments hold for strategy formulation.

U.S.S. Online Education: Navigating The High Seas Of Large Classes, Jane Lemaster

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Higher education has incorporated technology to the point of having 100% web-based degree programs composed of classes of geographically dispersed students taught by faculty from different universities that are also geographically dispersed. This kind of flexibility for learning opportunities is well on its way to being a standard option in education. But there are trade-offs and there are problems not yet solved. Increasing numbers of students create difficulties in managing interactions and challenges the quality and rigor that is possible in delivering the course. This paper presents a redesign option to manage the increasing enrollments in an online graduate level …

Bilingual Consumer Memory In The Advergaming Context: A Cross-Script Comparison, Monica D. Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Written language is the core of culture and central to marketing communications. The differences in language processing exhibited by Eastern/Western bilingual consumers are of great concern for global and multinational companies wishing to effectively promote their products through the Internet. Advergaming is a promotional method consisting of the delivery of advertising messages through electronic games. Despite recent scholarly interest, no previous research has compared brand memory across groups of bilinguals of different writing systems or scripts in the advergaming context.

The dissertation investigated differences in brand memory of bilinguals of languages based on different scripts. Specifically, a logographic-based language (Chinese), …

Corporate Governance And Expropriation Of Minority Shareholders' Rights: Evidence From Latin America, Marisela Santiago-Castro

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The dissertation empirically examines whether the internal corporate governance mechanisms of the firms represented in Latin American equity markets lead to the expropriation of minority shareholders' rights; and whether such expropriation leads to economic underperformance. Specifically, the dissertation answers the following: Is there a relationship between the board of director's characteristics and the expropriation of minority shareholders rights in Latin American firms? Is there a relationship between the ownership structure of Latin American firms and the expropriation of minority shareholders rights? Moreover, does the expropriation of minority shareholders rights lead to economic underperformance among Latin American firms?

Several hypotheses were …

The Value Of A Simulation-Based Approach For Teaching Both Survey And Capstone Courses In Business, Jane Lemaster

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

A concern in business education is the ability of students to integrate knowledge of the functional areas of business into a meaningful, unified whole. This paper examines the use of a business simulation for teaching the entry-level business survey course and describes the use of the same simulation in the graduate level (MBA) capstone course. An analysis of the value of simulation as an appropriate teaching approach is made for both the survey course and the capstone course. The paper presents the literature on learning styles and preferences, a description of the simulation used, how the study was organized, and …

Analysis Of Bankruptcy Law Provisions In New Member Eu Countries: Global Competitive Strategy Implications For Multinational Corporations, Francis J. Brewerton, Jane Lemaster

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications and Presentations

Globalization has been responsible for a number of ongoing interrelated trends including an accelerated worldwide movement toward economic integration, an ongoing proliferation of new multinational corporations, a widening search for new economic opportunities by multinational corporations, and an increasing concern for and attention to bankruptcy as a contingency strategy for multinational corporations when primary strategies catastrophically fail. The economic benefits associated with the removal of trade barriers is also attracting new member countries to the EU and other trading blocks but these new member countries’ bankruptcy law provisions may have uncertain contingency strategy implications for MNC’s.

This paper comprises (1) …

The Drivers And Antecedents Of Satisfaction, Trust, Commitment, And Loyalty Among Chinese Customers, Yun Chu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation explores the relationship between satisfaction, trust, commitment, and loyalty among Chinese customers. The selection of China as the location for this study is due to a number of factors. China's economic expansion and recent ascension to full membership within the World Trade Association (WTO) has generated “excitement, uncertainty, and fear” (Ghoshal, 2003). In the recent past trade with China has grown at on average of 15 percent a year and foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country has grown even faster (Ghoshal, 2003). This growth may result in an interesting paradox. If China maintains just two thirds of …