Business Commons^™

Developing A Positive Self-Talk Toolbox, Megan Wagner

Honors Theses

The following thesis demonstrates how individuals can overcome high-pressure situations in both the business and athletic environments. Individuals are asked to perform in many different aspects of their lives. Oftentimes, individuals feel pressure when asked to perform at their optimal level. While there are many tactical skills to help individuals improve their skillset for a particular performance area, this thesis argues that a positive mindset can increase individual’s performance levels during the act of performing. Primary research has been conducted between two different research groups (business professionals and athletes) to determine that pressure exists in each respective environment based on …

A Multi-Objective Stochastic Programming Model For Resilient And Sustainable Supply Chains Under Uncertainty, Mohammad H. Majdfaghihi

Dissertations

Supply chain resilience (SCRES) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) have garnered significant attention in the field of Supply Chain Management (SCM) science. This heightened interest is largely attributable to the increasing frequency and severity of uncertainty and disruptions in global supply chains. Resilience is a beneficial approach to managing uncertainties and preparing for and mitigating the adverse consequences of Supply Chain (SC) disruptions. Sustainability is a key concept in SCM, driven by governmental regulations and heightened stakeholder and customer concerns for environmental and societal well-being. Studies on SCRES have traditionally focused on preparing for and reacting to disruptions and …

Understanding The Big Data Analytics Deployment Gap: Operationally Leveraging Big Data Analytics Capability For Value Generation In Healthcare, Hyunmin (Dan) Shin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the surge of big data analytics (BDA) deployments in healthcare, many organizations still struggle to successfully realize value from their investments. This has resulted in the phenomenon of BDA deployment gap, where relative to the interest and investments in BDA initiatives by the organizations, actual value generated from successful migrations of BDA models from data labs to in-practice environment deployments at the initiative level have been scarce. To leverage the growing repository of big data, organizations are required to develop the ability to collect, store, process, and analyze big data (BD); this process is referred to as big data …

Sharing Economy Last Mile Delivery: Three Essays Addressing Operational Challenges, Customer Expectations, And Supply Uncertainty, Nicolò Masorgo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Last mile delivery has become a critical competitive dimension facing retail supply chains. At the same time, the emergence of sharing economy platforms has introduced unique operational challenges and benefits that enable and inhibit retailers’ last mile delivery goals. This dissertation investigates key challenges faced by crowdshipping platforms used in last mile delivery related to crowdsourced delivery drivers, driver-customer interaction, and customer expectations. We investigate the research questions of this dissertation through a multi-method design approach, complementing a rich archival dataset comprised of several million orders retrieved from a Fortune 100 retail crowdshipping platform, with scenario-based experiments. Specifically, the first …

Leveraging The Granularity Of Healthcare Data: Essays On Operating Room Scheduling For Productivity And Nurse Retention, Jaeyoung Kim

All Dissertations

The primary objective of this dissertation is to provide insights for healthcare practitioners to leverage the granularity of their healthcare data. In particular, leveraging the granularity of healthcare data using data analytics helps practitioners to manage operating room scheduling for productivity and nurse retention. This dissertation addresses the practical challenges of operating room (OR) scheduling by combining the existing insights from the prior literature through various tools in data analytics. In doing so, this dissertation consists of three chapters that operationally quantify the operational characteristics of the operating room and surgical team scheduling to improve operating room outcomes, including OR …

Application Of Business Analytics Approaches To Address Climate-Change-Related Challenges, Donald J. Jenkins

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is an existential threat facing humanity, civilization, and the natural world. It poses many multi-layered challenges that call for enhanced data-driven decision support methods to help inform society of ways to address the deep uncertainty and incomplete knowledge on climate change issues. This research primarily aims to apply management, decision, information, and data science theories and techniques to propose, build, and evaluate novel data-driven methodologies to improve understanding of climate-change-related challenges. Given that we pursue this work in the College of Management, each essay applies one or more of the three distinct business analytics approaches (i.e., descriptive, prescriptive, …

Healthcare Employees’ Perceptions On The Effects Of Internal Audits, Jeremy Mason

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

With limited research on the perceptions of internal audits, this study was

able to add more literature to the subject. The study’s aim was to survey

employee perceptions of the effects of internal audits. This study will provide organizations with results pertaining to how employees perceive the usefulness of internal audits. The study team conducted a single-site study and invited the healthcare organization's employee population to participate in the study. The survey captured 40 responses from 361 invitees (11%). The survey explored the perceptions on six categories of internal audits: Efficiency, Ethical Behavior, Effectiveness, Auidotr-Auditee Relationship Exchange, Learning from Audit, …

How Awareness Levels Of Environmental And Ethical Risks Affect Consumer's Perceptions Of Fast Fashion, Antonina Stragapede

Honors Theses

The fast fashion industry is known for its low prices, quick inventory, and its ability to keep up with runway styles. Yet, the amount of risk that comes along with their processes has been kept hidden. The lenient policies in international countries have given the fast fashion industry leverage to create tons of dangerous carbon emissions, as well as keep labor at an inhumane level. The point of our study was to try to create awareness of both ethical and environmental risks through a randomly distributed intervention. Participants were also encouraged to take part in our longitudinal study to determine …

The Effect Of Four Decades Of Deregulation On Competition And Productivity Of The U.S. Freight Transportation Industry, Seungjae Shin

Theses and Dissertations

This study reviews the competition and productivity of the U.S. freight transportation industry for the past 41 years. This study investigated the trends of HHI market concentration index values and labor productivity values of rail and truck sectors and tried to find any relationships between the two values in the separate periods before and after the abolishment of the ICC. This study also investigated how the existence of a regulatory body impacted productivity of the freight transportation industry by using a Cobb Douglas production function on annual financial statement data in the U.S. stock exchange market. This study found that: …

Strategies For The Implementation Of Supply Chain Internships: A Case Of Meaningful Boundary Spanning Relationships, Derek Mitchell

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The overarching goal of the research is evaluating the structure of my internship and identifying an internship model that creates meaningful, beneficial opportunities for students, creates a talent pipeline for companies, and establishes experiential education opportunities for academic institutions. The interns were assigned to the company’s largest, most important account which makes this an interesting case. Once the structure of the internship program has been evaluated, the specific goal of this research project is to create a supply chain internship model that is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. There is limited research in this field so this case study …

Supply Chain Management Internship Thesis – Toyota North America, Samuel Shaheen

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The main goal of the research is to evaluate my internship and the company I worked for, provide background information of the company, and deliver a brief background of my internship experiences. A self-assessment of myself and personal learning objectives from before my internship will be provided to serve as a basis of my expectations and how I feel the internship program will help me grow. Once expectations are laid out, I will explain different projects, assignments, and responsibilities that the interns were given and how they were executed. The main findings from the analysis of the projects and responsibilities …

Supply Chain Management Thesis Internship – [The Clorox Company], Tara Colligan

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) play an essential part in our lives. There are countless stock keeping units that have unique codes internally at a company as well externally for their customers. These companies sell their product into large retailers and manage their supply chain network for multiple brands in their portfolios. I had the opportunity to not only learn how a global CPG company operates their supply chain every day, but to work on the supply chain for the largest customer account. Last summer, I was a Product Supply Operations intern with The Clorox Company in Bentonville, Arkansas. My thesis …

Challenges And Recommendations For Disaster Response For The Medical Supply Chain: A Case Study Of Hurricane Laura, Anna Catron Lee

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

There are many areas that need improvement in the medical supply chain when it comes to humanitarian disaster responses specifically related to hurricanes. The purpose is to provide an overview of the various factors and challenges in the medical supply chain that must be considered when responding to a hurricane disaster, focusing specifically on Hurricane Laura. Specifically, I focus on five key issues that I assembled based on the literature that must be taken into account when responding to hurricane disaster: (1) availability of resources, (2) inventory management control, (3) risk management strategies, (4) coordination among stakeholders, and (5) debris …

Investigating The Effect Of Knowledge Of Environmental Implications On Generation Z Vehicle Choice In Last Mile Delivery Service, Mitchelle Atungulu

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Consumer knowledge has a significant impact on consumer behavior and choice, where specific types of knowledge influences consumer shopping and purchasing decisions. As concerns about the environment and businesses operations’ effect on the environment grows, there has been various calls for facilitating increased consumer awareness on environmental issues; with the intent of this knowledge serving to influence consumer decision making in a manner that is viewed as favorable for environmental sustainability. With the substantial growth of ecommerce, one of the decisions that consumers more frequently make is that of delivery service choice as they make online purchase transactions. Various aspects …

Bridging The Gap: A Comprehensive Guide To Implementing An Internship Program For Businesses, Ben Turner

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis outlines a comprehensive plan for implementing an internship program, from the perspective of a former intern. The paper emphasizes the importance of internships for businesses and aims to create a program that generates value for both the business and the intern. The plan is divided into three stages: Planning and Designing, Recruiting and Selecting, and Managing and Supervising. Each stage provides detailed steps for successfully implementing an internship program, including identifying needs and objectives, determining a timeline and structure, defining roles and responsibilities, developing a budget, setting performance expectations and goals, providing training and support, evaluating performance, and …

Corruption In The U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry, Anna Woelfel

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

A story that has to be told too often is that of the people who cannot afford lifesaving medications, and as a result do not survive. Doctor Nicky Mehtani says that the inability of a patient to afford their medication can be a common cause of death. This is an answer not accepted by grieving family members who have lost a loved one. It is estimated that more than a fourth of people in the United States needing medical treatment struggle with payment or simply cannot afford to pay for the lifesaving medications that they need (Mehtani, 2018). Deteriorating American …

Supply Chain Management Thesis Internship - Courtavenue, Emma Easterwood

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

An internship is a crucial way for students to gain real-world experiences in school. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to intern with a digital marketing start-up called CourtAvenue in the summer of 2022. I learned many things about myself, and how businesses operate, and I had the opportunity to lean more into my creative side.

Name, Image, And Likeness In College Athletics, Kinsey Landry

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Name, Image, and Likeness, “The three elements that make up the 'right of publicity,’ a legal concept used to prevent or allow the use of an individual to promote a product or service.” (“Understanding the NCAA Likeness Rule”, 2021). There is a hot topic affecting college institutions, student-athletes, and the communities that support these major sports schools known as Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Throughout this writing, there will be a dive into the history of how we got to July 1, 2022, the pros, cons, and gray areas in the sports industry of NIL, the real experiences …

Humanitarian Awards Impact On For-Profit Companies: A Case Analysis Of The American Logistics Aid Network's Awards, Chloe Hansberger

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Beginning in 2017, American Logistics Aid Network has given out annual awards to for-profit companies recognizing their achievements in humanitarian aid. The Outstanding Contribution to Disaster Relief Award is recognition-based only and does not have any prize money associated with it. The degree of the awards’ effectiveness has been a subject much debated in scholarship. This research attempts to answer how the American Logistics Aid Network’s Outstanding Contribution to Disaster Relief Award affects the recipients financially. In particular, the research was designed to look at how the American Logistics Aid Network’s Outstanding Contribution to Disaster Relief Award affected the profit, …

Customer Service And Logistics Internship At Colgate-Palmolive: Project Portfolio, Elizabeth Bolton

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, I highlight my experience as a Customer Service and Logistics Intern at Colgate-Palmolive on the Walmart team. During my internship, I gained proficiency in software programs for data collection and developed problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills in the CPG supply chain industry. Through my project portfolio, I provide an overview of my daily responsibilities, project objectives, insights, and learning outcomes achieved during the internship, demonstrating my readiness to advance my career in supply chain management.

Supply Chain Management Internship – J.B. Hunt, Parker Shearon

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

An Experiential Report for the degree Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Supply Chain Management.

The Utilization Of Procurement Strategies In A Supply Chain Environment, Cole Stevens

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

In today's globalized business environment, efficient supply chain management has become crucial for organizations striving for success. The Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas is widely regarded as one of the top institutions for supply chain management education in the nation. As a student who has undergone their supply chain program and curriculum, I have gained valuable insights and experiences that have prepared me for the demands of the industry.

One of the significant benefits of this education was the opportunity to undertake an internship at Caterpillar Inc., where I was able to gain hands-on experience in …

How Company Culture Can Make Or Break An Organization, Savannah Rubino

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

"Company culture" is one of many buzz phrases researchers use to define the climate of the modern workforce. It's a company's shared values and beliefs and manifests in the way they do business, what employees they attract, and even their bottom line. Company culture initially gained traction during the COVID-19 work-from-home wave when a remote setting allowed companies and employees alike to reevaluate the role of the workplace in their lives and how it shapes their personal and professional goals. This caused a pivot from "hustle" workplace culture to more of a holistic, balanced one. According to Forbes, hustle culture …

Supply Chain Management Internship, Kendall Benson

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

An Experiential Report for the degree Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Supply Chain Management.

Supply Chain Management Internship Thesis - Hilti & Amazon.Com, Inc., Reagan White

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper will contain an overview of my internship experiences at Hilti and Amazon.com, Inc. It will give insight into the history, culture, and backgrounds of both companies. Additionally, it will address the structure and learning objectives of both internships, with an in-depth analysis of the projects that I completed during my time with both companies. These analyses will describe the underlying business problems that both firms were facing, as well as, the quantitative and qualitative value that was driven by my recommendations and the successful implementation of various supply chain solutions. Given that Hilti and Amazon.com, Inc. differ in …

Turmoil On The Mississippi River: Harnessing Green Infrastructure To Accommodate Drastically Changing Environmental Patterns, Edouard Ballett

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Mississippi River is one of the most important commercial waterways in the world. It connects the United States’ agricultural and manufacturing centers with the rest of the country and the global supply chain while also being the economic engine for developments up and down the river. Over the past four years, the Mississippi River has experienced its worst drought and flood on record. Climate change is increasing the commonality of extreme weather events, and we must alter outdated concrete or “gray” infrastructure. Traditional river engineering of levees, locks, and dams increases the severity of river flow or lack thereof, …

The Problem With Modern Supplier Diversity Programs And Building A Methodology For Strategic Transformation, Lillian Hou Qin

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Procurement Skills In The Age Of Volatility, Jason S. Kerzel

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Flexibility Is Key: Managing Rubber’S Elastic Sourcing Demands, Alexander Kennedy

Honors Projects

A contemporary study of how tire manufacturers are responding to supply chain challenges resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine by comparing them to actions taken during World War II. Supply chain management principles are applied within the context of the tire and rubber industry to provide recommendations for dealing with supply disruptions in future conflicts.

Trade Wars, Covid-19, Usmca, And Protectionism: Exogenous Factor Influence On U.S- Mexico Supply Chains In The Automotive Industry, Maria Bustillos

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This research explores what the impacts of COVID-19, the U.S-China trade war, and the implementation of North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as the United States, Mexico Canada (USMCA) Trade Agreement, have had on U.S.-Mexico trade relations, focusing on the automotive industry. With rising trends of protectionism in international trade, this research focuses on the language that Tesla and General Motors company sites in Mexico used from 2021 to March 2023 in their released articles to the public and how frequently the variables of COVID19, the U.S China trade war, USMCA, and protectionism were discussed. Articles in both Spanish and English …