Business Commons^™

Co2 Reduction Measures In The Aviation Industry: Current Measures And Outlook, Florian Mathys, P. Wild, J. Wang

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This article gives a holistic overview of the current CO₂ reduction measures and analyses the effectiveness of measures that are feasible for implementation in the future. To achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement, the aviation industry needs to implement reduction measures because of its forecasted growth and contribution to global warming. The focus is set on CO₂ reduction measures, categorized in technology, operations, infrastructure/air traffic management (ATM), and market-based measures. The most promising long-term technologies to reduce CO₂ emissions are hydrogen-powered aircrafts and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). In terms of operations, CO₂ emissions can be …

Strategies For Small Business Entrepreneur Sustainability For 5 Years And Beyond, Ralph A. Heath Iii

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSmall business failures impede entrepreneurs' sustainability in localities, the state, and the U.S. economy. Small business entrepreneurs are concerned about strategies to target and minimize obstacles from business inception for business survival because the failure rate increases as the business develop. Grounded in the entrepreneurial theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies for small business entrepreneur sustainability beyond five years. Participants comprised three small business owners in Southeast Virginia who effectively used strategies to sustain their business beyond five years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, analysis of participants’ business documentation, and research of …

Strategies To Sustain Small Construction Businesses Beyond The First 5 Years Of Operation, Catherine Nyasha Mukopfa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners employ over half the U.S. labor force, yet only 50% of small businesses survive beyond 5 years. When small business owners understand the factors that lead to their business failure, they can develop strategies to remain sustainable and profitable within the first 5 years, thus reducing the potential of business failure. Grounded in the resource-based theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies five small construction owners in central Georgia used to remain in business beyond 5 years. Data were collected from semi structured interviews, a review of organization income statements and …

Developing An Artificial Intelligence Framework To Assess Shipbuilding And Repair Sub-Tier Supply Chains Risk, Rafael Diaz, Katherine Smith, Beatriz Acero, Francesco Longo, Antonio Padovano

VMASC Publications

The defense shipbuilding and repair industry is a labor-intensive sector that can be characterized by low-product volumes and high investments in which a large number of shared resources, technology, suppliers, and processes asynchronously converge into large construction projects. It is mainly organized by the execution of a complex combination of sequential and overlapping stages. While entities engaged in this large-scale endeavor are often knowledgeable about their first-tier suppliers, they usually do not have insight into the lower tiers suppliers. A sizable part of any supply chain disruption is attributable to instabilities in sub-tier suppliers. This research note conceptually delineates a …

Stock Trend Prediction Using Candlestick Charting And Ensemble Machine Learning Techniques With A Novelty Feature Engineering Scheme, Yaohu Lin, Shancun Liu, Haijun Yang, Harris Wu

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

Stock market forecasting is a knotty challenging task due to the highly noisy, nonparametric, complex and chaotic nature of the stock price time series. With a simple eight-trigram feature engineering scheme of the inter-day candlestick patterns, we construct a novel ensemble machine learning framework for daily stock pattern prediction, combining traditional candlestick charting with the latest artificial intelligence methods. Several machine learning techniques, including deep learning methods, are applied to stock data to predict the direction of the closing price. This framework can give a suitable machine learning prediction method for each pattern based on the trained results. The investment …

Hidden Markov Model And Cyber Deception For The Prevention Of Adversarial Lateral Movement, Md Ali Reza Al Amin, Sachin Shetty, Laurent Njilla, Deepak K. Tosh, Charles Kamhoua

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) have emerged as multi-stage attacks that have targeted nation-states and their associated entities, including private and corporate sectors. Cyber deception has emerged as a defense approach to secure our cyber infrastructure from APTs. Practical deployment of cyber deception relies on defenders' ability to place decoy nodes along the APT path optimally. This paper presents a cyber deception approach focused on predicting the most likely sequence of attack paths and deploying decoy nodes along the predicted path. Our proposed approach combines reactive (graph analysis) and proactive (cyber deception technology) defense to thwart the adversaries' lateral movement. The …

Neutroalgebra Theory, Vol. I, Florentin Smarandache, Memet Şahin, Derya Bakbak, Vakkas Uluçay, Abdullah Kargın

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In general, in any field of knowledge, with respect to any structure, one has the following neutrosophic triplet . They were introduced by Smarandache in 2019 and 2020.

1) A classical Structure is a structure whose all elements are characterized by the same given Relationships and Attributes and Laws.

2) A NeutroStructure is a structure that has at least one NeutroRelation or one NeutroAttribute or one NeutroLaw, and no AntiRelation and no AntiAttribute and no AntiLaw.

3) An AntiStructure is a structure that has at least one AntiRelation or one AntiAttribute or one AntiLaw.

As a particular case, in the …

Solutions To Fermi Questions, Feb. 2021, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

Solutions for Fermi Questions, Feb. 2021. How many visible photons per second does a light bulb emit? How much does the U.S. spend on residential lightbulbs (both the bulbs and the electricity) every year?

Secure Network Access Via Ldap, Nicholas Valaitis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Networks need the ability to be access by secure accounts and users. The goal of this project is to configure and expand on LDAP configurations with considerations for AAA via TACACS+ and Radius for network equipment. This will provide adequate security for any given network in terms of access and prevent lose of access to devices which happens all to often with locally configured accounts on devices.

Mobile Commerce, Crowd Commerce, And Stage Models: Reviewing And Expanding On Tp Liang’S Research, Sihua Chen, Mikko Siponen, Wael Soliman, Cao Xin, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we review a few key themes of Ting-Peng (TP) Liang’s research. We first discuss some of his major contributions to information systems (IS) in the areas of electronic commerce, mobile commerce, and crowd commerce. Future research directions for these three themes are also discussed in the paper. TP Liang is also an early proponent of stage models although this stream of research has yet to receive the importance it deserves in the IS community. Previous seminal theoretical accounts in IS have generally separated variance and process models, the latter is useful in modeling changes in the explanatory …

Factory To Table: A Philosophic Analysis Of The Justice Or Lack Thereof Of Agricultural Markets, Will Carter

CMC Senior Theses

How food is produced has dramatic consequences on how we live, our world’s justice, and the future of our planet. In a world increasingly driven by neoliberalism, agricultural markets have been incentivized to industrialize, globalize, and consolidate. This has resulted in the global dominance of a new type of agriculture, industrial agriculture, driven by the market logic of lowering costs and raising profits. Industrial agriculture has undoubtedly generated the profound benefit of cheaper, more plentiful food in much of the world. These favorable innovations lead many scholars to argue that free markets produce the most just and efficient arrangements for …

Strategies To Overcome Constraints For Small Business Sustainability, Jaquane Mawyne Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than 20% of small businesses that started in March 2018 failed within a year. Small business owners would benefit from strategies to identify and mitigate constraints from inception for business survival because business failure rates are higher among small businesses less than five years old. Grounded in the theory of constraints, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business owners use to sustain beyond the one year of operation. The participants included six small business owners in Georgia who successfully sustained their business beyond five years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and …

A Multicase Study Of Critical Success Factors Of Self-Service Business Intelligence Initiatives, Eva Shepherd

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information technology (IT) managers have sparse information on the critical success factors (CSFs) needed for self-service business intelligence (SSBI) initiatives among casual users. The purpose of this qualitative, multicase study was to describe Business Intelligence (BI) experts’ views on the CSFs needed for self-service BI initiatives among casual users in the post-implementation stage. To meet this purpose, a multicase study design was used to collect data from a purposeful sample of 10 BI experts. Semistructured interviews, archival data, and reflective field notes drove the credibility of the multicase study’s findings through data triangulation. Two conceptual models framed this study: Lennerholt …

A Serious Game For Social Engineering Awareness Creation, Fabian Muhly, Philipp Leo, Stefano Caneppele

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Social engineering is a method used by offenders to deceive their targets utilizing rationales of human psychology. Offenders aim to exploit information and use them for intelligence purposes or financial gains. Generating resilience against these malicious methods is still challenging. Literature shows that serious gaming learning approaches are used more frequently to instill lasting retention effects. Serious games are interactive, experiential learning approaches that impart knowledge about rationales and concepts in a way that fosters retention. In three samples and totally 97 participants the study at hand evaluated a social engineering serious game for participants’ involvement and instruction compliance during …

Creators And Backers In Rewards-Based Crowdfunding: Will Incentive Misalignment Affect Kickstarter's Sustainability?, Michael Wessel, Rob Gleasure, Robert John Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Incentive misalignment in rewards-based crowd-funding occurs because creators may benefit disproportionately from fundraising, while backers may benefit disproportionately from the quality of project deliverables. The resulting principal-agent relationship means backers rely on campaign information to identify signs of moral hazard, adverse selection, and risk attitude asymmetry. We analyze campaign information related to fundraising, and compare how different information affects eventual backer satisfaction, based on an extensive dataset from Kickstarter. The data analysis uses a multi-model comparison to reveal similarities and contrasts in the estimated drivers of dependent variables that capture different outcomes in Kickstarter’s funding campaigns, using a linear probability …

Corporate Social Responsibility In The United States And Nigeria, Olatokunbo Ahmed Wilfred Tijani

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A recent spate of violations uncovered by international regulators has suggested an emerging social problem that the current corporate social responsibility (CSR) credibility paradigm could be decoupling between theory and practice. This development has left most stakeholders deliberating if CSR in practice is aligned with CSR in theory. This correlational research study empirically tested the CSR theory, positing improved corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP); and stakeholder theory, positing quid pro quo correlation between multinational corporations (MNCs) and their stakeholders. The purpose of this study was to identify if there is a positive association between the corporate …

Enhancing Employee Engagement To Improve Financial Performance, Christine Lamacchia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Business leaders are negatively affected when many employees are not engaged in their jobs. Business leaders who struggle to achieve employee engagement suffer decreased profitability, sales, employee retention, and customer satisfaction. Grounded in employee engagement theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies IT business leaders use to engage employees. The participants were five IT business leaders who successfully developed strategies to engage employees. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company documents, and artifacts. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Two themes emerged: creating a company culture conducive to employee engagement and using …

Mobile Technology Use By Rural Farmers And Herders, Mohamed Ali

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mobile technology business leaders from many mobile technology companies practice digital apartheid when improving rural farmers' communication and technology infrastructure in developing countries. Mobile technology business leaders who do not effectively plan mobile technology infrastructure deployment to rural farmers and herders are at a high risk of failure. Grounded in adaptive structuration theory of technology, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies mobile technology business leaders used to improve the mobile technology infrastructure for rural farmers and herders in the United Republic of Tanzania. The participants comprised three mobile technology business leaders from three different …

Characteristics Of Authentic Entrepreneurial Leadership Within Information Technology Startups In Kenya, Christine Mukhwana

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In Kenya, over 60% of nascent entrepreneurs start businesses with minimal leadership experience, engendering founder-CEOs who cannot sustain a business beyond its formative years. The problem is the nascent entrepreneurs’ lack of understanding of effective leadership. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to develop a more nuanced understanding of authentic leadership behavior from the perspective of nascent entrepreneurs. Authentic leadership theory and the three-factor model were used to conceptualize the study. The research question focused on nascent entrepreneurs’ lived experiences and understanding of authentic leadership. The participants in the study were entrepreneurs from the information technology industry in …

Consumers Perspectives On Using Biometric Technology With Mobile Banking, Rodney Alston Clark

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The need for applying biometric technology in mobile banking is increasing due to emerging security issues, and many banks’ chief executive officers have integrated biometric solutions into their mobile application protocols to address these evolving security risks. This quantitative study was performed to evaluate how the opinions and beliefs of banking customers in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States might influence their adoption of mobile banking applications that included biometric technology. The research question was designed to explore how performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), perceived credibility (PC), and task-technology fit (TTF) affected …

Sustainability Strategies For Small Business Organizations, Tajudeen O. Olatunji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are essential to every nation’s economic growth, including the United States, but more than 67% of SMEs fail within the first 10 years. When SMEs implement long term business sustainability strategies, they continue to generate business and remain profitable, enabling SMEs to remain viable and contribute to local community employment opportunities. Using entrepreneurship theory as the conceptual framework, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by 3 SME owners in the northeastern region of the United States to sustain their businesses beyond 10 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews …

Efficient Algorithms For Identifying Loop Formation And Computing Θ Value For Solving Minimum Cost Flow Network Problems, Timothy Michael Chávez, Duc Thai Nguyen

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

While the minimum cost flow (MCF) problems have been well documented in many publications, due to its broad applications, little or no effort have been devoted to explaining the algorithms for identifying loop formation and computing the value needed to solve MCF network problems. This paper proposes efficient algorithms, and MATLAB computer implementation, for solving MCF problems. Several academic and real-life network problems have been solved to validate the proposed algorithms; the numerical results obtained by the developed MCF code have been compared and matched with the built-in MATLAB function Linprog() (Simplex algorithm) for further validation.

Option Implied Volatility's Predictability On Monthly Stock Returns, Hung T. Dao

Senior Independent Study Theses

Since the trading of options is based on underlying stocks, it is reasonable to assume that information from the options market can be used to explain the returns in the stock market. Our independent study investigates the relationship between options implied volatility and stock returns. Previous studies have found significant results in using implied volatility in predicting stock returns. This paper provides a discussion of such studies, the theoretical framework for the research topic, and the Black-Scholes model, which is famous for its application in implied volatility calculation. Monthly returns of 20 large US firms are regressed against implied volatility …

Sustainability Of Rewards-Based Crowdfunding: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis Of Funding Targets And Backer Satisfaction, Michael Wessel, Rob Gleasure, Robert John Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Rewards-based crowdfunding presents an information asymmetry for participants due to the funding mechanism used. Campaign-backers trust creators to complete projects and deliver rewards as outlined prior to the fundraising process, but creators may discover better opportunities as they progress with a project. Despite this, the all-or-nothing (AON) mechanism on crowdfunding platforms incentivizes creators to set meager funding-targets that are easier to achieve but may offer limited slack when creators wish to simultaneously pursue emerging opportunities later in the project. We explore the related issues of how funding targets seem to be selected by the creators, and how dissatisfaction with the …

Three Stages Of Consumers’ Multi-Stage Dichotomic Switching Process: Pre-Switch, Switch, And Post-Switch, Jussi Nykanen, Virpi K. Tuunainen, Tuure Tuunanen, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This research examines why and how consumers switch their mobile phones. We propose a framework that is grounded on decision-making and motivational theories and draws on the findings from a multinational qualitative survey on consumers’ mobile phone switching process. We show that consumers’ pre-switching decisions are affected by push and pull factors, their mobile phone selections are based on utilitarian or hedonic values, and their justifications for switching are based on cognition or affect. Furthermore, we identify two archetypical routes (i.e., cognitive and affective routes) and three conjoint routes that explain the dichotomic switching processes in pre-switch, switch, and post-switch …

Agile Software Development: Creating A Cost Of Delay Framework For Air Force Software Factories, J. Goljan, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Scott Drylie, Edward D. White

Faculty Publications

The Air Force software development environment is experiencing a paradigm shift. The 2019 Defense Innovation Board concluded that speed and cycle time must become the most important software metrics if the US military is to maintain its advantage over adversaries.¹ This article proposes utilizing a cost-o­f-d­elay (CoD) framework to prioritize projects toward optimizing readiness. Cost-­of-d­elay is defined as the economic impact resulting from a delaying product delivery or, said another way, opportunity cost. In principle, CoD assesses the negative impacts resulting from changes to the priority of a project.

A Learning Curve Model Accounting For The Flattening Effect In Production Cycles, Evan R. Boone, John J. Elshaw, Clay M. Koschnick, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Adedeji B. Badiru

Faculty Publications

We investigate production cost estimates to identify and model modifications to a prescribed learning curve. Our new model examines the learning rate as a decreasing function over time as opposed to a constant rate that is frequently used. The purpose of this research is to determine whether a new learning curve model could be implemented to reduce the error in cost estimates for production processes. A new model was created that mathematically allows for a “flattening effect,” which typically occurs later in the production process. This model was then compared to Wright’s learning curve, which is a popular method used …

Sustainability In Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review, Reza Kiani Mavi, Denise Gengatharen, Neda Kiani Mavi, Richard Hughes, Alistair J. Campbell, Ross Yates

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper aims to identify the major research concepts studied in the literature of sustainability in construction projects. Two bibliometric analysis tools—(a) BibExcel and (b) Gephi, were used to analyze the bibliometrics indices of papers and visualize their interrelations as a network, respectively. Therefore, a research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis and keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis were performed to uncover the primary research themes. The RFPN analysis clustered the studies into three major categories of evaluating sustainability, project management for sustainability, and drivers of sustainable construction. The KCON analysis revealed that while each paper had a different focus, the …

Recovery Agenda For Sustainable Development Post Covid-19 At The Country Level: Developing A Fuzzy Action Priority Surface, Meisam Ranjbari, Zahra S. Esfandabadi, Simone D. Scagnelli, Peer O. Siebers, Francesco Quatraro

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

As a response to the urgent call for recovery actions against the COVID-19 crisis, this research aims to identify action priority areas post COVID-19 toward achieving the targets of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development launched by the United Nations (UN). This paper applies a mixed-method approach to map the post-COVID-19 SDGs targets on a fuzzy action priority surface at the country level in Iran, as a developing country, by taking the following four main steps: (1) using a modified Delphi method to make a list of the SDGs targets influenced by COVID-19; (2) …

A Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (Nardl) Analysis Of The Ftse And S&P500 Indexes, David E. Allen, Michael Mcaleer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The paper features an examination of the link between the behaviour of the FTSE 100 and S&P500 Indexes in both an autoregressive distributed lag ARDL, plus a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag NARDL framework. The attraction of NARDL is that it represents the simplest method available of modelling combined short-and long-run asymmetries. The bounds testing framework adopted means that it can be applied to stationary and non-stationary time series vectors, or combinations of both. The data comprise a daily FTSE adjusted price series, commencing in April 2009 and terminating in March 2021, and a corresponding daily S&P500 Index adjusted-price series obtained …