Business Commons^™

United States Medicaid And Pharmacy Fraud: An Unintended Consequence Of The Affordable Care Act, Sean Mcdaniel, Drew Blakely

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased access to health insurance throughout the United States. To date, an estimated 20 million previously uninsured individuals have gained access to coverage since the expansion. As a result, the number of fraudulent schemes reported has been on the rise. Among the many fraudulent activities in the healthcare sector, abuse of pharmacy benefits has been the most prevalent. The misuse and abuse of opioids, and opioid related overdoses has created a widespread epidemic throughout the country, thus extending opportunities for potential fraud within the pharmaceutical industry.

Purpose of the Study: The purpose …

The Role Of Organizational Culture For Creating Understanding And Trust Through Internal Crisis Communication, Albena Björck, Petra Barthelmess

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

Understanding and trust are major goals of the internal communication in general. In a crisis situation with its inherent uncertainty and lack of time their importance is elevated to a new level. The crisis communication theory lacks a cultural contextualization and a long-standing tradition for including the influence of organizational culture. The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of corporate culture as a key factor for internal crisis communication and its effectiveness. It investigates how the visible and less visible levels of culture manifest themselves in the internal crisis communication practice and identifies organizational culture patterns that …

Perceptions Of Production And Animal Agriculture In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2020 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steven A. Schulz, Jason L. Weigle

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans have farming or ranching history in their family. In fact, one-half of rural Nebraskans are one generation or less removed from the farm or ranch. Rural Nebraskans’ connection to agriculture has not changed much in the last ten years.

Most rural Nebraskans view their economic well-being as being dependent on both production agriculture in general and animal agriculture in particular. Furthermore, most rural Nebraskans say the economic well-being of their community or county is very much dependent on the economic success of both production agriculture and animal agriculture.

Most rural Nebraskans are supportive of new livestock development …

Well-Being In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 25 Years Of Trends, 2020 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steven A. Schulz, Jason L. Weigle

Nebraska Rural Poll

By many different measures, rural Nebraskans are positive about their community. Many rural Nebraskans rate their community favorably on its social dimensions. Most rural Nebraskans say it would be difficult to leave their community and have a positive attachment to their community. Most rural Nebraskans disagree that their community is powerless to control its future.

Rural Nebraskans’ views about the change in their community have generally been positive. The proportion believing their community has changed for the better during the past year has usually been greater than the proportion believing it has changed for the worse, especially during the past …

The Relationship Between Organizational Culture And Profitability Of Small, Nonprofit, Private, Higher Education Institutions In Georgia, Walter V. Murray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small, nonprofit, private, higher education institutions (SNPHEIs) are facing economic challenges that threaten their existence. This threat represents a public policy problem because 28% of all higher education in America is delivered by SNPHEIs. The purpose of this study was to investigate any correlational relationships that may exist between the organizational culture (OC) in SNPHEIs and their financial sustainability. Based on the competing values framework, a causal relationship between OC and organizational profitability within the SNPHEI was posited. In this study, both descriptive and comparative research questions were used; they focused on the OC types identified in the competing values …

Unfunded Stakeholder Mandates And Nonprofit Performance Impacts, Courtney Lyn Coe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small nonprofit organizations, with annual budgets of $500,000 or less, are assigned many obligations by external stakeholders while conducting their mission-related work. However, little is known about the impact of these obligations or mandates being received from their external stakeholders, which rarely have funding allocated to minimize any capacity impact they create. The purpose of this study was to learn about whether, and how, the organizational capacity of small nonprofit organizations is impacted by unfunded mandates. Applying the theoretical framework of rational choice theory, the patterns revealed by the data allow the ability to draw conclusions based upon the lived …

Conflict Style Is Not A Label: The Relationship Of Age, Education Level, Work Level, Reason For Assessment, And Time Between Assessments To Conflict Style Change, Michael P. Kelly

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Organizations and research that are only measuring conflict style one time, are treating conflict style as a trait or label. However, conflict style can change over time, and with context. Even the circumstances around the conflict itself may impact how individuals handle conflict. This means that individuals may demonstrate different conflict styles in different circumstances. There is little research that explores the implications of individual conflict style change if measured at different times and in different circumstances. Nor is there much research that explores what factors may have an influence on conflict style change. This study explores whether conflict style …

Democratizing Policy Debates: Experts, Media & Public Involvement In The Discourses Of Economy, Brendan K. O'Rourke, John Hogan, Joseph K. Fitzgerald

Other

No abstract provided.

United States Department Of Defense Acquisition Of Leading-Edge Information Technology Services And The Impact Of Public Market Research On Efficiency And Effectiveness, Thomas Denning

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This dissertation examines the acquisition of leading-edge IT services (LEITS), like those associated with cyber, agile software development, and cloud migration. In an effort to build on previous research, the purpose of this dissertation is twofold: to examine how Public Market Research impacts the LEITS acquisition process in the DoD and to discover strengths and value-added components that exist in the current government acquisition process leading to greater efficiency and effectiveness. Through a mixed methods approach, this dissertation provides recommendations for how to conduct the most efficient and effective LEITS acquisitions, striving to maximize a constrained budget, minimize time to …

Data-Driven Decision-Making: An Analysis Of Needs Assessment Methodology In Northwestern Pennsylvania Nonprofit Organizations, Jason Brady

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This research examines the community needs of a specific region, Northwestern Pennsylvania, in order to determine how well the community’s current social needs are being addressed by nonprofit organizations in this area. A comprehensive review of related literature is provided in order to establish a theoretical framework for this topic. This background is utilized in the development and execution of a community needs assessment for the Northwest Pennsylvania region. This assessment, presented in the form of an online survey, resulted in 714 unique responses within the selected region. Quantitative and qualitative methods are applied to the gathered data in order …

Using Input From Landlords Participating In The Dothan Housing Authority's Housing Choice Voucher Program (Hcvp) To Streamline Operations And Increase Retention, Michael C. Threatt

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) is a public-private partnership between a landlord, voucher holder, and a Public Housing Authority (PHA). However, this public-private partnership appears to be a two-sided partnership instead of a three-way partnership as the HCVP was designed. Over 110,000 landlords have withdrawn from the HCVP since 2009, which has negatively affected housing choices for voucher holders. This phenomenon of landlords leaving the HCVP is a catastrophe problem for the rental housing crisis that is a part of the larger affordable housing crisis. The perception of institutional bureaucracy for landlords is their reality, and the unintended consequence …

Salary History And The Equal Pay Act: An Argument For The Adoption Of “Reckless Discrimination” As A Theory Of Liability, Kate Vandenberg

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The Equal Pay Act (EPA) purports to prohibit employers from paying female employees less than male employees with similar qualifications; however, the affirmative defenses provided in the EPA are loopholes that perpetuate the gender pay gap. In particular, the fourth affirmative defense allows for wage differentials based on a “factor other than sex.” Many federal circuits have read this defense broadly to include wage differentials based on salary history. That is, an employer can pay a female employee less than her male counterparts because she was paid less by her previous employer. While salary history was once viewed as an …

Regime Type And Covid-19 Response, Ilan Alon, Matthew Farrell, Shaomin Li

Management Faculty Publications

From late 2019 to the first half of 2020, the world has witnessed the epic spread and destruction of the novel coronavirus which was discovered in Wuhan, China. The huge number of infections and deaths caused by the virus, the collapse of the healthcare system and the economic consequences have few modern equivalents. While governments of all countries are responding to the pandemic, a heated debate rages about which political system, democracy versus authoritarian, is better positioned to respond to the pandemic. While the worldwide effort to contain the virus continues, we offer a preliminary comparison between democracies and authoritarian …

Increasing Diversity Among Women Entrepreneurs In High Growth High Tech Using Hbcu Female Academic Entrepreneurs, Clovia Hamilton

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

There is a concentrated number of potential women entrepreneurs of diverse races among faculty in the United States' Historically Black Colleges and Universities (known as HBCUs and are called 'Black Colleges' herein). This study describes the potential for developing university technology transfer in these Black Colleges as a strategy for increasing diversity among women entrepreneurs in high growth, high tech fields using female academic entrepreneurs. Currently, Black Colleges lag behind their peer non-Black Colleges in . technology transfer because historically they have been under, served and were originally established largely as teaching and blue-collar trade schools. Although Black female STEM …

Organizational Capacity-Building To Battle Addiction In The Oneida Community, Anita F. Barber

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Oneida Nation community members created a new and developing organization The Healing Society (fictious name) operated by a volunteer board. The board needed strategic direction to build organizational capacity and sustainability to address the lack of awareness in the community about the increase in opioid and heroin abuse after a well-known community member died from an overdose. The purpose of this postpositivist constructionist qualitative case study was to gather empirical data from the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders through a SWOT analysis focused on their perspectives. Their answers addressed: (a) the organizational strengths and weaknesses of The Healing Society …

Families Belong Together: The Path To Family Sanctity In Public Housing, Mckayla Stokes

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In its 2015 landmark civil rights decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court finally held that the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the United States Constitution guarantee same-sex couples’ marital equality. The Court’s unprecedented declaration that the right to marry is a fundamental right under the Due Process Clause strengthened married couples’ right to privacy because it subjects government actions infringing on marital unions to heightened scrutiny. The Supreme Court has the option to minimize the impact of Obergefell by interpreting the right to marriage very narrowly—as only encompassing the right to enter into a state-recognized union …

The Executive Director Experiences Of African American Women In Mainstream Nonprofit Performing Arts Organizations, Davida S. Gobin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American women are presently underrepresented in mainstream nonprofit performing arts organizations (PAOs) throughout the United States. Despite this inequality, a small number of African American women have overcome the odds and have productively earned senior leadership roles as executive directors in mainstream nonprofit PAOs. Using the conceptual frameworks of intersectionality and critical race feminism, the purpose of this study was to explore the shared lived experiences of African American women in executive director positions and the impact of race and gender on their leadership development and training for advancement in a mainstream nonprofit PAO. Four research questions explored the …

Environmental Governance For Whom? Examining The Political, Institutional, Fiscal, And Legal Determinants Of State Environmental Agency Budget Policy In The Us, Andrew R. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations

Budgets are a prospective tool of governance, and appropriations are a planning vehicle reflecting: bureaucracies’ values, complex interactions, collective preferences, political influences, and available resources. Research spanning 30 years finds that environmental pollution is a key determinant of environmental budgets in the US, though myriad factors, actors, and subsystems are important to consider. Due to federalism and devolution of responsibilities and authorities, environmental governance falls largely to the states. While the dynamics that shape state environmental budget policy have received scholarly interest, theoretically-driven examinations of environmental appropriations remain limited within the public budgeting and environmental policy literature.

Using panel data …

Shipbuilding Supply Chain Framework And Digital Transformation: A Project Portfolios Risk Evaluation, Rafael Diaz, Katherine Smith, Rafael Landaeta, Antonio Padovano

VMASC Publications

Program portfolio managers in digital transformation programs have a need for knowledge that can guide decisions related to the alignment of program investments with the sustainability and strategic objectives of the organization. The purpose of this research is to illustrate the utility of a framework capable of clarifying the cost-benefit tradeoffs stemming from assessing digitalization program investment risks in the military shipbuilding sector. Our approach uses Artificial Neural Network to quantify benefits and risks per project while employing scenario analysis to quantify the effects of operational constraints. A Monte Carlo model is used to generate data samples that support the …

Sense Of Community Responsibility At The Forefront Of Crisis Management, Eric C. Martin, Neil Boyd

Faculty Journal Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that a sense of community responsibility is crucial to mitigate the effects of viral spread. Many citizens across the world have heeded the call to isolate and self-distance, yet large numbers of individuals do not seem to understand their responsibility for others. This article explores how a sense of community responsibility is born in community contexts, how various features of a crisis impact community responsibility, and how public administration plays a crucial role in facilitating mitigation and solutions to crisis. The article also explores the utility of the Community Experience Model in crisis …

Enacting A Culture Of Access In Our Conference Spaces, Adam Hubrig, Ruth Osorio, Neil Simpkins, Leslie R. Anglesey, Ellen Cecil-Lemkin, Margaret Fink, Janine Butler, Tonya Stremlau, Stephanie L. Kerschbaum, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Anonymous, Cody A. Jackson, Christina V. Cedillo

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

The article offers information on periodical's rhetoric and writing studies conference held in September 2020. Topics discussed include prioritizing access in the service of love, justice, connection and liberation; proposing expansive frameworks for access in designing accessible writing classrooms and professional events; and major principles of definition of access, which reflect access's complexity and liberatory potential such as dynamic, relational and intersectional.

2020 Icrcc Proceedings Table Of Contents, Conference Organizers

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

These proceedings are a representative sample of the presentations given by professional practitioners and academic scholars at the 2020 International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference (ICRCC) held March 9-11, 2020. The ICRCC is an annual event that takes place the second week in March in beautiful sunny Orlando, Florida. The conference hosts are faculty and staff from the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. The goal of the ICRCC is to bring together prominent professional practitioners and academic scholars that work directly with crisis and risk communication on a daily basis. We define crisis and risk broadly to include, for …

The Political Preference Of Arkansas Farmers And Ranchers, Rachel J. Barry, Donna L. Graham

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Access to information is critical to improving production efficiency, but little is known about how farmers are informed on the policy or issues influencing programs related to farming. This research sought to determine the sources of communication used by farmers and ranchers to form opinions about agricultural policy and candidates, identify the issues important in voting, and their level of participation in the political process. Face-to-face interaction was the preferred form of communication in farm organization meetings, with friends, or farm agencies. Magazines were the preferred source of print communication, and university/extension websites were preferred for internet sources. Broadcast media …

Achieving Profitability In Global Small Business Supply Chain Management, Cheryl A. Mccloud

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Supply chain managers of small and medium-sized enterprises face cost inefficiencies in meeting human, physical, and technology capital requirements. Small and medium-sized enterprise supply chain managers who fail to implement cost-efficiency strategies risk jeopardizing profitability. Grounded in the chaos theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the successful strategies SME supply chain managers used to create cost efficiencies to remain profitable. Participants were 3 corporate supply chain managers of a small and medium-sized international enterprise located in central Florida who were successful at creating cost efficiencies to remain profitable. The data collection process included face-to-face …

Employee Engagement In The Federal Sector: An Exploration Of Communication, Respect, Motivation, And Encouragement, Jody Mcdaniel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate and deepen the understanding of employee engagement in the multigenerational workforce of a federal agency. Organizational culture in combination with the dispersion of staff across multiple generations presented the opportunity to inform the case study through scientific management theory and the theory of generations as well as concepts regarding organizational change, employee satisfaction, and organizational leadership. Research questions involved investigating factors influencing the reduction in employee satisfaction and engagement, the impact of generational differences, and the role leadership plays in altering employee engagement. Survey questions were developed based on 4 …

Participatory Mapping, E-Participation, And E-Governance: Applications In Environmental Policy, Pragati Rawat, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

This chapter focuses on participatory mapping as an e-governance tool to facilitate public participation. Public participation is a key component of democratic governance, and there is a growing reliance on digital government tools such as the internet and social networking sites and geographic information systems (GIS). This chapter focuses on public engagement using information and communication technology, namely participatory mapping, known by a variety of terms such as participatory GIS (PGIS), public participation GIS (PPGIS), and voluntary GIS. While the analysis involves use of participatory mapping related to environmental issues, the chapter brings together seminal work from various fields of …

Contextualizing Performance Of Coordinated Care Network Of Veteran Services In Virginia, Marina Saitgalina, Donta Council

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Coordinated care network is an approach to human service delivery that is recognized to improve client outcomes at a reduced cost. However, general mixed findings on the effectiveness of coordinated care networks warrant research contextualization. This article seeks to discover factors influencing the performance of a coordinated care network delivering social services to veterans and their families. The study provides a contextual analysis of a coordinated care network launched in 2016 in southeastern Virginia for two samples of 1,512 and 375 veterans and their families. Results of the regression analyses indicate that initial progress has been made both in efficiency …

Do Environmental And Financial Performances Affect Environmental Disclosures? Evidence From Listed Companies In Indonesia, Indah Fajarini Sri Wahyuningrum, Mochamad Arief Budihardjo, Fadel Iqbal Muhammad, Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta, Terri Trireksani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 by author(s) and VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center. The number of companies in Indonesia that have participated in environmental-related activities continues to grow. Some of these companies have also engaged and implemented an assessment program called Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation, and Rating (PROPER). This assessment program was initially launched by the Indonesian Ministry of Environment in 1995 to measure and rate the environmental performance of companies in Indonesia. They have also administered an environmental management system as part of their environmental protection initiatives. However, the level of environmental disclosure by these companies is still low. This may …

Let My People Stay: A Nonprofit's Role In Immigrant Lives, Karla Villa

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This project draws on research that I conducted May to August 2019 with a nonprofit organization, La Casita Center, that provides services to the Hispanic immigrant community in Louisville KY. Despite what appears to be a bleak time in our country for immigrants and immigration reform, there is hope found in the organizations that are working to support and fill the gap that the national government has left. I draw on interviews and participant observation research conducted with staff at La Casita Center to

1. Analyze how La Casita staff decide which resources and projects to implement.

2. Consider how the current …

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The Public Wet Market System Of Iloilo City, Philippines, Joshua Cedric I. Carmen, Edsel Francis T. Lima, Joseph Joshua U. Te, Austin Nathaniel T. Toledo, Christine Mae D. Hernando

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

In the Philippines, public wet markets are an integral part of the country’s history, culture, and economy. Wet markets are the primary trading centers in towns all over the Philippines since the Spanish colonial times. However, with globalization, the increasing hypermarketization in Iloilo City threatens the viability of wet markets. This paper sought to find out the external environment, resources, enterprise components, and business outputs of the wet markets in Iloilo City. It also explored various local governance initiatives to assist the business growth and development of these wet markets. Using a descriptive design and interviews with 100 wet market …