Business Commons^™

Impact Of Leadership In Project Management, Ian Wegh

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

Today’s business environment demands effective project management for enterprises to meet their goals and continue to be innovative. Inherently, this also means that project managers must have strong leadership skills. Project management provides a framework of techniques that provides a symbiotic relationship between both the framework and the leader. The idea behind project management is to complete objectives efficiently within a certain time period given a restricted number of resources. This means project management is a process of principles, tools, and methodologies used to effectively manage a team through the System Development Life Cycle. The System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) …

Discovering Data-Driven Solutions: A Practical Guide For Small Businesses Implementing Data Analytics, Katherine Richoux

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

In today’s highly competitive business environment, small businesses are under growing pressure to fight for market share. To do this, a competitive advantage must be established to outperform other business competitors both big and small. One way that small businesses can create a competitive advantage is by utilizing their data and applying basic data analytics. Data analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing large sets of raw data using statistical tests to identify patterns and insights to make conclusions that inform business decisions. The use of data analytics is not exclusive to large corporations and can be greatly beneficial …

Internship Thesis – Koch Industries, Sophia Gesualdi

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

The history of Koch Industries dates back to 1927, when Fred C. Koch improved the process of converting heavy oil into gasoline. This innovation was the moment that started it all; the company has only grown since its humble beginnings. Today, Koch Industries (Koch) is one of the largest privately held companies in America (Summary of Koch Industries History). Koch has involvement in an extremely diverse list of businesses and industries around the world; the organization is a conglomerate of companies that all function under the same umbrella. Two of the most noteworthy companies owned by Koch Industries are Flint …

The Value Of Assurance Over Internal Controls: Evidence From Mergers And Acquisitions, Ryan Courtlin Cating

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine the value of assurance over internal controls in the mergers and acquisitions setting. Specifically, I examine the how the existence of an internal control audit mandated under Section 404(b) of SOX affects information asymmetry as proxied for by the likelihood of a company becoming the target of an acquisition. I find that companies with internal control audits are significantly more likely to receive bids than their counterparts that do not have an internal control audit. Upon further investigation, I find that the mechanism by which companies are more likely to become the target of an …

Three Essays On The Performance Evaluation Of Actively Managed Investment Funds, Qing Yan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the performance of hedge funds and actively managed U.S. equity mutual funds.

The first chapter examines the relation between hedge funds and the low beta anomaly. Different conditions in the mutual fund and hedge fund industries should lead to different approaches with respect to the low beta anomaly. I find that, unlike most mutual funds, the average hedge fund tends to benefit considerably from the anomaly. About 2.3% per year of apparent alpha for the average hedge fund can be attributed to the low beta anomaly rather than manager skill. Low skill managers are the most reliant …

Immersive Systems And User Engagement Through Neurois Lens, Ali Balapour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immersive systems (e.g., Virtual Reality) are at the forefront of the next generation of innovative technologies. Recent technological advancements have made them viable for businesses and individuals to adopt. For example, some realtors now offer virtual house tours in the absence of walk-ins. The concept of “immersion” is at the heart of these technologies. However, despite the fact that this concept has been studied for almost three decades, our understanding remains weak and inconsistent. Specifically, there remains a lack of consensus on what it is, its antecedents, and how it should be measured.

This dissertation includes two essays. In Essay …

What Were The Factors That Led To The Gamestop Short Squeeze?, Riley Burnette

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

The world of finance is rapidly evolving - for better or for worse. The introduction of social media in sentimental stock market trading, and new brokerage apps, combined with the new resurgence of retail investors, has led to some interesting results. These new factors in the stock market have challenged the status quo of the stock market. A group of retail investors has led this change on a Reddit forum known as /r/WallStreetBets

In early January 2021, a group of retail investors collaborated a short squeeze on GameStop stock, creating an attack against the hedge funds on a popular Reddit …

Business Analysis Of Flexpacer: The Viability And Profitability Of Rechargeable Pacemakers, Bailey Arnold

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

Heart disease being as prominent as it is in the United States enables medical technology manufacturers to create lucrative businesses and products for cardiothoracic and cardiovascular physicians and patients. As a proposed rechargeable pacemaker (PM) that uses piezoelectric energy harvesting technology, FlexPacer has the chance to eliminate the need for battery replacement surgeries. This paper aims to outline the current issues in PM products and technology, identify the potential risks and benefits of FlexPacer, and discuss FlexPacer’s potential for profitability.

Outcomes Of Platform Openness In Complementary Markets, Franck Loic Soh Noume

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobile platform ecosystems are hyper-competitive environments. They provide important entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses that develop mobile apps. Platform openness is foundational in mobile platform ecosystems as it enables interactions between complements and platform. Although there are several studies on the impact of platform openness, our understanding of the outcomes of platform openness remains limited. In this dissertation, we examine thoroughly underexplored facets of platform openness as well as understudied outcomes. In the first essay, we investigate the impact of platform openness on incumbent complements’ performance outcomes. We unravel important causal mechanisms related to competition dynamics between new entrants and incumbent …

The Dynamics And Effects Of Supply Network Structure, Marat Davletshin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rising interest in network theory among supply chain scholars reflects an emerging shift in perspective. To deliver global speed, efficiency, and responsiveness, modern firms’ supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The patterns of interactions and interdependencies among hundreds of firms interconnected by these complex supply chains cannot be adequately explored from the dyadic perspective, which has dominated supply chain research for decades. Many supply chain scholars agree that the language of networks can provide a syntax and structure to describe and explore this complex reality. The actual application of network theory in supply chain research, however, has been limited. …

Choosing Information Systems As A Major: Factors That Influence Selection, Carole L. Shook

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of factors affecting the decision to select information systems as an undergraduate major. Additionally, information systems students were compared to other business students to see if significant differences existed between groups. The four factors studied included: (a) personal interest in the major, (b) student competence, (c) value and utility, and (d) external influences of other people and academic experiences.

A convenience sample was used at a public university in the Southeastern region of the United States. Two hundred junior/senior students were selected as participants. One hundred of the students were …

A Meticulous Food Safety Plan Today Avoids Handcuffs Tomorrow, Kim Bousquet

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In August 2010, thousands of people across the United States were poisoned by eating eggs unknowingly tainted with Salmonella enteritidis bacteria. Following a lengthy investigation, the owners of the facility where the outbreak began were sentenced to three months in prison. This is not a one-off case; poor food safety practices are responsible for several outbreaks and often end in incarceration. Filthy hen houses, diseased fruit storage, and negligent food processing may be the last thing we want to imagine, but these practices have much to teach today's food producers. This article first examines how poor food production practices can …

Three Empirical Studies On Digital Innovation Management: New Organizing Logic Of Antecedents And Consequences Of Innovation, Kailing Deng

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, innovation has undergone considerable changes in most industries. Digital innovation may represent the use of digital technology in the innovation process or to the end outcome of innovation. Over the years, innovation has become open, global, and collaborative in nature and involves diverse stakeholders and distributed innovation processes (Nambisan 2013; Nambisan et al. 2017). The importance of innovation will continue to grow in the future, as the business environment becomes increasingly uncertain and competitive. With the rapid development of digitized technologies, in addition to innovation outcomes such as new products, platforms, and services, IS researchers have …

Technology And The American Criminal Justice System, Taylor Hunt

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

The American prison population has grown to over 2.3 million citizens incarcerated (“United States of Incarceration,” 2016) and there are more than 900,000 police officers in the nation (“Law Enforcement Facts,” n.d.). These over 3 million people use technology every day in either their work or incarcerated lives. As the effectiveness of the criminal justice system is being questioned, now is the time to perform an assessment of the technology used and make technological recommendations to lower crime, incarceration, and recidivism rates simultaneously. To obtain that technology assessment, a student research study was conducted and consisted of research and interviews …

Blockchain: Is It The Future Of Business?, Stuart Welsch

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

Blockchain is one of these new and disruptive technologies being developed; it is predicted to change the landscape of business in an extremely similar fashion as the Internet did. In lay terms, blockchain is a new technology designed to secure privacy (Collins, 2016), cut out unnecessary middleman costs (Eha, 2017), dramatically lower the cost of transactions (Iansiti & Lakhani, 2009), lower transaction time (Underwood, 2016), and assist in making assets become more liquid and appealing (like cash) because they are more easily transferable (Paech, 2016). Blockchain functions like a ledger; it is able to keep track of an asset’s ownership …

Two Essays On Analytical Capabilities: Antecedents And Consequences, Rishikesh Jena

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although organizations are rapidly embracing business analytics (BA) to enhance organizational performance, only a small proportion have managed to build analytical capabilities. While BA continues to draw attention from academics and practitioners, theoretical understanding of antecedents and consequences of analytical capabilities remain limited and lack a systematic view. In order to address the research gap, the two essays investigate: (a) the impact of organization’s core information processing mechanisms and its impact on analytical capabilities, (b) the sequential approach to integration of IT-enabled business processes and its impact on analytical capabilities, and (c) network position and its impact on analytical capabilities. …

Big Data And Organizational Impacts: A Study Of Big Data Ventures, Taha Havakhor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New information technology (IT) ventures are at the forefront of developing IT innovations. In spite of their importance in the advancement of IT and the unique risks of survival that distinguishes them from established firms, the organizational literature on IT has mostly overlooked new IT ventures. Specifically, Big Data industry is a context where new IT ventures actively change the landscape of IT innovations. However, less is known about the factors influencing the economic success of Big Data ventures (BDVs), as well as the established firms that invest in them. To shed light on these factors, three essays are designed …

Essays On Technology-Mediated Training: Implications For Design And Evaluation, Vishal Satyapal Shah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Information technology (IT) is increasingly used to impart a variety training skills, and these skills may range from specific software application operations and computer programming to learning about generic business processes. Using IT to assist training is broadly termed “Technology-Mediated Learning” (TML). Following the three essay model, this dissertation examines training interventions in the context of TML. In Essay 1, a thorough literature survey of technology training in Information Systems (IS) was conducted, resulting in clarification of the nomenclature used in TML. Essay 1 also identified of two leading theories used in TML research: (a) Social cognitive theory (SCT) (b) …

The Effect Of Ceo It Expertise On The Information Environment: Evidence From Management Earnings Forecasts, Jacob Zachary Haislip

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Firms depend on information technology to provide high quality internal information, but prior research suggests that IT is underutilized (Venkatesh and Bala 2008). Therefore, using a sample of firms with equivalent levels of technology in their information systems, I investigate whether firms that employ CEOs with IT expertise make forecasts that are more accurate. I argue that CEOs with IT expertise are more likely to encourage the utilization of IT in making earnings forecasts, thus increasing the accuracy of the forecasts. This argument is supported by prior research that suggests that people are more likely to utilize technology if they …

The Mechanisms Of Interpersonal Privacy In Social Networking Websites: A Study Of Subconscious Processes, Social Network Analysis, And Fear Of Social Exclusion, Bryan I. Hammer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing usage of Social networking sites like Facebook there is a need to study privacy. Previous research has placed more emphasis on outcome-oriented contexts, such as e-commerce sites. In process-oriented contexts, like Facebook, privacy has become a source of conflict for users. The majority of architectural privacy (e.g. privacy policies, website mechanisms) enables the relationship between a user and business, focusing on the institutional privacy concern and trust; however, architectural privacy mechanisms that enables relationships between and among users is lacking. This leaves users the responsibility to manage privacy for their interpersonal relationships. This research focuses on the following …

Consumer Adoption Of Health Information Systems, Sankara Subramanian Srinivasan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At nearly 18 percent of the country's GDP, the U.S. healthcare industry continues to wrestle with growing cost and a quality of care that does not match the increased spending. The dominant focus to date has been on promoting Health IT (HIT) system implementation and digitizing health records at the provider's end, with scant attention to the role of the patient in the healthcare process. The source of inefficiency in the healthcare system is not only on account of shortcomings at the provider's end but also due to non-compliance (such as failing to adhere to medication advice and follow-up visits) …

Workforce Preparedness Of Information Systems Students: Perceptions Of Students, Alumni, And Employers, Susan Bristow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employers of newly hired higher education graduates report their new workforce is not prepared. Further research was required to discover insights to the workforce readiness gap. This concurrent mixed methods study explored what competencies influenced employer's perceptions of the work-readiness of Information Systems (ISYS) undergraduate students and discovered ISYS graduates' and current ISYS students' perceptions of their work-readiness. Participants consisted of a convenience sample including 69 ISYS program upperclassmen, 20 ISYS program alumni, and 8 employers of the ISYS program graduates. ISYS program alumni completed an online Qualtrics survey to measure the participants' perception of their workforce preparedness. ISYS program …

Data Science In Supply Chain Management: Data-Related Influences On Demand Planning, Yao Jin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Data-driven decisions have become an important aspect of supply chain management. Demand planners are tasked with analyzing volumes of data that are being collected at a torrential pace from myriad sources in order to translate them into actionable business intelligence. In particular, demand volatilities and planning are vital for effective and efficient decisions. Yet, the accuracy of these metrics is dependent on the proper specification and parameterization of models and measurements. Thus, demand planners need to step away from a "black box" approach to supply chain data science. Utilizing paired weekly point-of-sale (POS) and order data collected at retail distribution …

Your Media Speak So Loud I Can't Hear A Word You're Saying: Impact Of Media And Media Selection On Performance, Martin Hassell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the proliferation of communication media and technologies available, it is important for teams to understand the influence of these media on the performance of their communications. Additionally, it is important for researchers to understand how teams choose and use media. Literature on communication media impacts and communication performance has been somewhat fragmented, and researchers have used different theories and paradigms to study this problem. Researchers still do not have a full understanding of how media influences communication, whether teams recognize and select appropriate media for their communication needs, and what makes some communication more effective, irrespective of the communication …

Development And Implementation Of It-Enabled Business Processes: A Knowledge Structure View, Rick Brattin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As competitive pressures mount, organizations must continue to evolve their business processes in order to survive. Increasingly, firms are developing new IT-enabled business processes in response to rising competition, greater customer expectations, and challenging economic conditions. The success rate of these projects remains low despite much industry experience and extensive academic study. Managerial and organizational cognition represents a potentially fruitful lens for studying the design and implementation of IT-enabled business processes. This view assumes that individuals are information workers who spend their days absorbing, processing, and disseminating information as they pursue their goals and objectives. Individuals develop cognitive representations, called …

Time Waits For No One: Using Time As A Lens In Information Systems Research, Christopher M. Conway

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite considerable research interest, IT projects still fail at a higher rate than other projects. Primary causes for these failures are relational, motivational, and scheduling issues on the team. Using the concept of time as a lens, the four essays in this dissertation examine how the ways that individuals and teams structure time can help explain these failures. The essays formulate the concept of temporal dissonance at the individual and team level, and explore how temporal dissonance causes negative consequences for IT workers and IT teams.

Essay one synthesizes temporal dissonance from concepts of temporal congruity and cognitive dissonance. It …

The Role Of Leadership In Facilitating The Performance Of Dispersed Teamwork, Jaime Beth Newell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A mature body of research on leadership has investigated the impact of a variety of leadership behaviors and styles on team performance. This corpus of work is built on an assumption that team leaders can motivate, direct, and monitor teams by way of sustained, personal contact with team members. However, this assumption is being challenged by recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Use of ICTs has altered traditional team-based structures, enabling organizations to employ teams composed of members who are dispersed across geographic boundaries, while severing the direct, personal ties leaders have to team members. Recent reviews of …

The Influence Of Simulation-Based Information Systems Education On Enterprise Systems Knowledge And User Satisfaction, Pamela Jeanne' Schmidt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Enterprise systems implementations are often high cost and high risk with many companies failing to achieve their targeted business objectives. At the individual level, negative user reactions to enterprise systems lead to resistance to IT use, counter-productive adaptations, and reduced job satisfaction. Factors that contribute to these individual level effects include a lack of understanding of reengineered business processes and a lack of understanding of economic interdependencies. In this research, a computer-based business simulation educational intervention is investigated to determine its effectiveness in facilitating enterprise systems knowledge acquisition and promoting job satisfaction. Simulation-based education utilizes an experiential learning model, immersing …

Two Essays On The Accounting Treatment For Information Technology Expenditures, Kimberly Swanson Church

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current accounting measurement and reporting system is ill-equipped to provide intangible investment information that is decision useful for stakeholders in the information economy. Potentially relevant intangible items are not reported on the balance sheet, since current standards mandate the immediate expensing of these intangible items. Presumably FASB's uncertainty with the fundamental issues of extent and timing of future benefits to the firm has led to concerns with relevance, reliability, and objectivity of capitalizing some intangibles, which results in potential long term value generating expenditures being immediately expensed on the income statement. Prior research has demonstrated extent and timing of …

Biometric Security: Are Inexpensive Biometric Devices Reliable Enough To Gain Wide-Spread Security Usage?, Brian Thanh Tran

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

The ever growing need for security in today' s world requires exploring the feasibility of various security methods to ensure the safety of the world's population. With the tremendous growth of technology, e-commerce, and business globalization, society implements new methods to try to battle security problems. Technology advances has resulted in a number of inexpensive biometric devices to the marketplace. Two questions surface regarding this devices-are they reliable enough for general usage and will people be willing to use them? This research conducted a repeated design experiment to determine the effectiveness of four inexpensive biometric devices-three fingerprint readers and an …