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4th Sbs International Conference 2025: Transforming Business For People And Planet, School Of Business Studies (Sbs)

Conference Proceedings

The IBA-SBS International Conference (IBA-SBSIC) brings together scholars, professionals, and policymakers from around the world, providing a platform for learning, collaboration, and cutting-edge research. As we enter the 4th edition in 2025, the conference embraces the theme "Transforming Business for People and Planet."

The business landscape is evolving rapidly, with companies increasingly held accountable for their environmental footprint, ethical responsibilities, and social impact. Governments, regulators, and consumers now demand responsible business practices that align with sustainability and long-term financial resilience. Sustainability is no longer a choice—it is a necessity. Global movements toward climate action, social equity, and responsible governance are …

How Executive Leaders Build Trust: Navigating Organizational Disruption During The Covid-19 Mega-Crisis, Marji Karish

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic, declared a global health crisis by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, created a “mega-crisis” characterized by intersecting physiological, economic, political, social, and cultural disruptions. This study examines how senior organizational executives narrate their response to the crisis, focusing on their engagement with organizational stakeholders. Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, I conducted in-depth interviews with 12 organizational leaders to construct the Theory of Social Crisis Leadership Communication (SCLC).

Findings highlight the centrality of trust as an interdependent relationship in which executive leaders and organizational stakeholders rely on each other to navigate crises successfully. …

Startup Accelerator Returns: J Curve Or L Curve? A Comparative Performance Analysis Between A Venture Accelerator And Early-Stage Venture Capital, Aleš Pustovrh

Economic and Business Review

This document analyses the profitability of investments in venture accelerators compared to early-stage venture capital funds. Using a case study of a single fund manager operating both investment types, it tracks the Total Value to Paid-In (TVPI) ratio over 6 years. The early-stage venture capital investments showed a positive trend, exceeding a TVPI of 1, indicating profitability driven by company survival rates, external funding attraction, and growth. Conversely, the accelerator investments underperformed, with a TVPI consistently below 1, suggesting a loss for investors. This raises questions about the long-term viability of the accelerator model, potentially resulting in an L curve …

New Building Permits In The Mountain West, 2024, Taylor Volk, Mohit Pande, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data on new build permits from January 2023 to January 2024 in the five Mountain West States of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.“New Home Construction Statistics,” published by This Old House, reported percent changes on new builder permits and construction manufacturing costs and statistics across all 50 states.

Fixed Income Mathematics, Kenneth S. Bigel

Open Touro Created

2025

Bond Math is at the center of the functioning of the bond markets, yet this critical sub-finance discipline is usually not accessible to the typical investor. This is an approachable study of the mathematical theories underlying Fixed Income instruments. It is not a study of bonds per se or the bond markets. The text commences with a basic review of the time value of money, i.e., the theory of compound interest. It then proceeds to discuss how bond prices and yields are determined. Next, it covers the relationships between bond prices and general movements of interest rates in the …

The Adoption And Implementation Of Lean And Six Sigma In State Governments And Its Impact On Efficiency, Effectiveness, And Equity, Jin Hong Kim

All Faculty Scholarship

This research explores the contextualized use of Lean and Six Sigma (LSS) practices in the state governments in the United States. It analyzes LSS’s capacity to innovate public service administration to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and equity in government.
This study employed the Grounded Theory Method to analyze 2,048 LSS project reports from 32 state governments between 2003 and 2024, aiming to identify systematic patterns in the adjustment and application of LSS within state service administration and its outcomes.
Thirty-two states applied LSS across 24 service areas, adapting it in five ways: strategic programming, production efficiency, customer focus, internal accountability, and …

The Startup Ecosystem In Southern Nevada: Growth, Energy, And Emerging Entrepreneurship In 2025, Len Jessup, Sean Curry

Policy Briefs and Reports

The startup ecosystem in Southern Nevada has undergone significant transformation during the past decade, evolving from a fragmented and nascent environment into a dynamic and increasingly coordinated landscape. This study examines the growth of the Southern Nevada startup ecosystem, analyzing key components such as funding sources, incubators, accelerators, and public-private collaborations. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data, including investment trends, economic impact reports, and interviews with over 100 stakeholders, this policy brief provides a comprehensive assessment of the strengths and gaps within the ecosystem. Key findings indicate that while the region has made substantial progress, particularly in fostering early-stage investments …

Marketing De Moda Predictivo E Inclusivo: Estrategias De Segmentación Avanzada Para Audiencias Diversas Con Inteligencia Artificial, Oscar Barroso Huertas

GDI. Revista de investigación de Género, Diseño e Innovación

Introducción: El marketing predictivo, impulsado por la inteligencia artificial (IA), está transformando cómo las marcas anticipan las necesidades de sus audiencias. En Moda, la personalización es clave para conectar emocionalmente con los consumidores, pero también es esencial que las marcas sean inclusivas, respetando la diversidad y la privacidad. Este artículo explora cómo las marcas de moda usan el marketing predictivo para segmentar audiencias diversas, garantizando campañas personalizadas e inclusivas. Metodología: Este estudio adopta un enfoque mixto, combinando revisión documental y análisis cualitativo. Se revisan fuentes académicas y casos de marcas que aplican marketing predictivo inclusivo, utilizando tecnologías como machine learning …

Arts-Based Sustainability: From New York To Malawi, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Recognizing that libraries serve multiple constituencies and subject areas, this chapter documents and advocates for development of transdisciplinary arts-based research (ABR) and culture-related projects linked to environmental challenges. Libraries contribute collections and spaces, as well as the research of library and information scientists. Libraries are currently among invisible contributors to sustainability planning and services. The chapter will link this invisibility to the value of what visual arts refer to as negative space elements in subjects ranging from traditional ecological knowledge to environmental science. Library collections, projects, and research contribute to education for sustainable development (ESD) as required to achieve the …

Examining The Relationship Between Perceptions Of Service Quality, Student Satisfaction, And Intention To Persist At Different Higher Education Institutions, Denise Hardesty, Aaron W. Hughey

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

Using a correlational research design, this quantitative, descriptive study was conducted at a two-year community college and a four-year public university. A modified version of the Perceived Service Quality (PSQ) instrument was used to survey full-time, undergraduate students at each institution to examine perceptinos of service quality and whether those perceptions impact a student's decision to return the next semester. Students at both institutions in the study reported a high level of satisfaction in all three primary dimensions of service quality; no significant differences were found to exist in the way in which service quality is perceived by students based …

Resilience Of Women Entrepreneurs In Mindanao And The Impact Of Access To Finance And Digital Technologies, World Bank, Ateneo Center For Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc.

Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship (ACSEnt)

Executive Summary

This report examines the resilience of women nano- entrepreneurs in Mindanao and explores the impact of access to finance and digital technologies on their business sustainability. Utilizing data from the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc. (SEDPI) and focus group discussions (FGDs), the study identifies key challenges and coping mechanisms employed by women-led nano- enterprises. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to design targeted interventions that strengthen the sustainability of these enterprises, particularly in the face of economic and environmental shocks. Women-led nano-enterprises in Mindanao typically operate informally, with assets ranging from PhP3,000 to …

Promotions And Themes: An Empirical Analysis Of Attendance Factors In The National Women's Soccer League, Lena Gunn, Alexander Traugutt

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) has experienced significant growth, making it crucial to understand attendance drivers at matches. This study evaluated the impact of themed events and promotions on attendance during the 2023 NWSL season. Using data from all regular-season home matches (N = 167), an OLS regression analyzed how various factors influenced attendance measured as a percentage of stadium capacity. Results revealed that themed events significantly increased attendance, while traditional promotions showed a positive but non-significant effect. External factors including post-World Cup timing, visiting team marquee players, and market demographics also significantly influenced attendance. These findings provide actionable …

Promoting Well-Being Among Intercollegiate Student-Athletes: The Impact Of Collegiate Sport Business Practices, Laura Kruger

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The purpose of this experimental study was to identify if the implementation of an educational gratitude workshop could increase intercollegiate student-athletes’ self-reported perceptions of well-being and reduce stress, considering sport administrators must address rising mental health concerns among athletes. Participants of various sport teams were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group to assess differences among self-reported measures of state gratitude, psychological distress, life satisfaction, athlete burnout, and perceived available support in sport. Statistical significance was found in the data analysis which demonstrated that the workshop was meaningful, and it significantly influenced the experimental group’s perceived available support in …

Specialization Or Diversification? Creators’ Strategies On User-Generated Content Platforms, Ziwei Ye

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Recent advancements in digital platforms have reshaped content creation and distribution. User-generated content (UGC), created and shared by internet users, is transforming entertainment, communication, and information sharing. The rise of UGC has fueled the growth of the "creator economy"—an ecosystem of creators, users, and advertisers facilitated by platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. While prior research has primarily explored how UGC platforms incentivize content quantity and quality, this study advances the literature by examining how creators' content strategies influence consumer attention and how platform mechanisms shape this relationship, offering new insights into the interplay between creator behavior and platform design. …

Individual Or Team Analyst Reports? The Organization Of Analyst Research Activities, Xia Chen, Ning Jia, Dan Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Given the importance of research resource allocation within brokerage firms, we examine key factors that influence the issuance of individual vs. team analyst reports. Using a comprehensive sample of analyst reports from China for the 2008-2021 period, we find that this decision is influenced by (1) the brokerage firm's client interests, whereby firms held by the brokerage firm's mutual fund clients and firms that are the brokerage firm's underwriting clients receive more team than individual reports from the brokerage firm, and (2) the nature of corporate events, whereby routine events receive more team reports and nonroutine events receive more individual …

Us Food Waste, Kawika Barry

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

This essay touches on the food waste problem we have in the US and various ways to help reduce the issue at hand.

The New Reality Of Work: Automation And Ai In Tyler, Manuel Reyes-Loya, Cecilia Cuellar

Hibbs Brief

This brief analyzes how automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping Tyler's labor market, identifying which occupations are most at risk and which may grow. It shows a significant share of local jobs are exposed to automation, but also highlights opportunities in roles requiring human skills and advanced technical training. The brief recommends workforce development and retraining to help the region's workers adapt and thrive in an increasingly automated economy.

The Caitlin Clark Effect: Evidence Of Athlete-Driven Market Disruption In Women’S Collegiate Basketball, Lawrence W. Judge, Jeffrey C. Petersen

Journal of Applied Sport Management

Caitlin Clark’s emergence as a generational collegiate basketball talent triggered a profound shift in consumer behavior, known as the “Caitlin Clark Effect” (CCE) (Lucas, 2025). This study examined attendance and venue utilization data from the University of Iowa’s women’s basketball program, spanning pre-, during-, and post-Clark periods. Results from one-way ANOVA analyses showed a statistically significant increase in average game attendance (home, away, and neutral), rising from 5,387 pre-Clark to 13,877 in her senior year (p < .001), with a sustained post-Clark average of 9,890. Arena capacity utilization followed a similar trajectory, increasing from 37.3% to 92.4%. Notably, post-Clark utilization remained at 74.3%, indicating durable fan interest. These findings provide time-sequenced evidence of a singular athlete catalyzing lasting institutional and market change in women’s collegiate sports. The study advances sport business theory by illuminating the strategic implications of athlete-driven branding and challenges assumptions underpinning facility planning and resource allocation.

Graduate School Blog - June 2025, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The June 2025 edition of the UofM Graduate School Blog helps prospective and current students make informed financial decisions with Part 1 of the Graduate School Cost Guide, breaking down tuition structures such as per-credit hour versus flat-rate models, highlighting UofM’s tuition cap for in-state students, and explaining key university fees and cost differences between online and on-campus formats. The blog also features Brianna Reilly, a Doctor of Musical Arts graduate from New York, who shares how a graduate assistantship and her passion for music education led her to continue at UofM through the pandemic. Additional resources include an …

Growing Through Grit And Grace, Roshni Mahtani Cheung

Asian Management Insights

An interview with Roshni Mahtani Cheung on how she scaled up theAsianparent and The Parentinc with resilience and a ‘community-first’ approach. How Roshni Mahtani Cheung scaled up theAsianparent and The Parentinc with resilience and a ‘community-first’ approach.

Understanding Gender Differences In Digital Readiness During Digital Transformation In Accounting Functions: Accounting Professionals’ Perspective, Benjamin Lee, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh-Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Research aims: To examine gender differences in digital readiness during digital transformation in accounting functions, addressing a knowledge gap in current accounting literature. Design/Methodology/Approach: Survey of 297 accounting professionals (180 men, 117 women) with 27 questions on digital readiness perceptions, analysed using exploratory factor analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests. Research findings: Women exhibited higher overall digital readiness than men, particularly feeling more empowered by senior management and better equipped to continue job tasks during digital transformation. No gender differences were found in perceptions of knowledge and skills, barriers, or organisational strategy. Theoretical contribution/Originality: Challenges traditional stereotypes about …

The Gender Effects Of Covid: Evidence From Equity Analysts, Frank Weikai Li, Baolian Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We use COVID-19 and sell-side analysts as an experiment to study the effects of gender on labor productivity. We find that the forecast accuracy of female analysts declined more than that of male analysts, especially when schools were closed and among analysts who were more likely to have young children, were inexperienced, were busier, or lived in southern states of the US. Relative to male analysts, females also reduced their forecast timeliness and resorted to more heuristic forecasts but did not reduce coverage or updating frequency. Relative to pre pandemic, female analysts’ careers were more negatively affected than male analysts’. …

Thriving In The Age Of Ai: Navigating Ai Identity Threat Through Ai Job Crafting, Yuming He

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like GenAI tools increasingly reshape the workplace, employees increasingly face threats to their work identity. Grounded in the identity threat response model and job crafting theory, this study investigates how AI identity threat influences employee AI job crafting behaviors and how these behaviors, in turn, affect vitality and learning. Using survey data from 521 full-time employees who actively engage with AI tools, the results indicate that AI identity threat stimulates both AI approach job crafting and AI avoidance job crafting. AI approach crafting enhances both vitality and learning, while AI avoidance crafting only supports vitality. …

An Exploratory Study Of Household Alcohol Consumption From The Us Bureau Of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey With A Focus On Market Conditions And Regulatory Structures, Mayya Makarycheva

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alcohol consumption and use is not just a harmful behavior or a potential recreational activity, but it also may form a way of self-identification.

Each type of beverage apparently has their own profile of dedicated drinkers. Those drinkers are also apparently loyal to the location of purchase. However, one may also consider whether consumption in one location is a predictor of consumption in the other location. This distinct tendency highlights the intricacy of consumption patterns, as on-premise and off-premise consumption simultaneously serve as complements and substitutes in the long run in terms of both location and type of beverage.

The …

The Association Between Different Succession Methods And Innovation Investments In Family Businesses In China, Lei Wu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Amidst the deepening of economic globalization, countries around the world are being progressively steered toward paths of innovative development, laying a solid foundation for enhancing national comprehensive strength and elevating international standing. Especially after the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy in our country, technological innovation has become the main direction of our transformation. According to the requirements of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, innovation-driven development will be fully applied to the country's development, creating favorable conditions for the realization of strategic development goals. National development and social progress are directly linked to corporate …

Conducting Background Checks In The Corporate Security Environment, Alan Saquella

Publications

In the current threat landscape, the background check has become a critical frontline defense in protecting corporate assets, brand integrity and personnel safety. But as any security leader will tell you, the traditional background check — focused on criminal history, employment verification and references — has limitations, especially in today’s regulatory environment.

Federal and state restrictions continue to erode the depth and scope of what can be legally reviewed, and meanwhile, insider threats and deceptive candidates are becoming more sophisticated. In this context, it's no longer about whether to conduct background checks — it's about how to conduct them effectively, …

On Sgx’S Voyage To Corporate Sustainability: Exploring Emerging Topics In Multi-Industry Corpora, Xinwen Ni, Min Bin Lin, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Wolfgang Karl Hardle

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Topic modeling and LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) have proven valuable in various fields as an innovative approach to studying areas of interest and identifying topics in a dynamic content. The underlying assumption is that techniques like LDA can swiftly capture emerging topics in textual documents compared to other categorization tools. These unsupervised approaches have been used to identify new industries and technological domains. However, our study on the nascent topic of “sustainability” within the corpora of SGX-listed companies highlights clear limitations in employing techniques like LDA on sparse data. The dynamic LDA approach, also called DTM (Dynamic Topic Modelling),based on …

Transmission Effect Of Contributory Pension Scheme To Economic Growth In Nigeria: Structural Vector Autoregressive (Svar) Approach, Iortyom Udaah, Sunday E. Akiri

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study examines the transmission effect of contributory pension scheme on Nige ria’s economic growth using quarterly data from 2010 to 2023. Thestudyis grounded in the Solow growth and Harrod–Domar models as its theoretical framework and employs a Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) approach for data analysis. The results show that economic growth responds positively to changes in pension fund assets and contributions. It also reveal that pension fund assets respond positively to changes in pension fund contribution in Nigeria. The study recommends that gov ernment should intensify efforts to encourage employers and employees in the in formal sector, as well …

Relative Price Changes And Monetary Policy Stance In Nigeria, Elijah A. Udoh, Ibrahim D. Mohammed, Yakubu M. Sanusi, Philom Ena Y. Oksakei

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study estimates a baseline Taylor Rule and an augmented Taylor Rule incorporating relative price movements (RELP) using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) on Nigerian data. The baseline model shows weak and statistically insignificant responses of the MPR to inflation, the output gap, and crisis conditions, confirming earlier findings that inflation and output in Nigeria do not have contemporaneous effects on the MPR. By contrast, the augmented model reveals that the relative price level positively and significantly influences the policy rate, indicating that the CBN raises interest rates when domestic prices rise relative to external or bench mark prices. Across …

Lessons Learned From Sandboxing, Piloting And Policy Experimentation With Ai And Other Digital Initiatives: Part 1, Summary Report, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This report, "Lessons Learned from Sandboxing, Piloting and Policy Experimentation with AI and Other Digital Initiatives," captures insights and experiences from project experts involved in recent digital innovation initiatives with the governments of Bangladesh, Maldives, and Kazakhstan, and from project experts actively involved with the use of AI for delivering government digital services in the EU, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, United States, and Uzbekistan. The ten in-depth interview write-ups produced from these nine different country settings provide a small but highly informative sample of rich descriptions of some of the important realities, approaches, nuances, issues and challenges related to testing …