Business Commons^™

The Effect Of Auburn University’S Business-Engineering-Technology Program On The Predisposition Towards Entrepreneurship In Business And Engineering Graduates, Paul Swamidass, Daniel Butler

Paul Swamidass

The unique Business-Engineering-Technology (BET) minor at Auburn University trains business and engineering students in teamwork and entrepreneurship. All eleven graduates of the first BET class (2003) and nineteen graduates from the second BET class (2004) were surveyed to assess their entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and abilities. Their responses were compared against the Auburn University norm for graduating seniors. The norm was developed using 254 responses from business and engineering students who were cohorts of the BET students. In this lock-step program, students design and develop three different products and matching businesses to exploit their products. Over the two years, they prepare …

Operational, Economic And Mission Elements In Not-For-Profit Organizations: The Case Of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James A. Belohlav

James A. Belohlav

No abstract provided.

Houses Of Straw, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

Straw bale building offers high performance at a low cost. Bale building, developed on the grasslands of Nebraska at turn of the last century, has been rediscovered. High insulation values and high interior thermal mass make straw bales a good choice for passive solar design.

The Attitudes Of Educators To Information Technology Adoption In Schools Settings, Manoj Maharaj, Wesley Govender

Manoj Maharaj

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Regional Innovation And Change: Path Dependency Or Regional Breakthrough?, Gerhard Fuchs, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

Rethinking Regional Innovation and Change is an edited volume bringing together papers from leading international scholars in the field of regional development and policy. Contributors to the book examine the interactions between path-dependent developments, institutions, and governance structures in influencing regional innovation capacity. The invariably complex interrelationships between technical and industrial development paths and regional institutions are explored, using cases from both highly developed and lagging regions. The book offers an assessment of the extent to which regional innovative capacity can be increased by strengthening, re-orientating, or creating institutions and policies and examines opportunities for reflexive practice at the regional …

Succeeding In A Cross-Disciplinary, International, Student Design-Team Project: Auburn University/University Of Plymouth Experience, Paul Swamidass, Bob Bulfin, David Grieve, Chetan Sankar, Venu Vulasa

Paul Swamidass

Globalization has turned product design upside down. Members of a single design team in multinational firms may be located in several countries such as the USA, UK, Italy, India and so on. It is a challenge to give engineering and business students a taste of this experience. Auburn University’s Business-Engineering-Technology (B-E-T) program, and the College of Engineering, University of Plymouth, participated in a joint effort to replicate real-life product design process with a mixture of engineering and business students. This paper describes the experience, its lessons and compares it with other attempts at multinational student design-team projects.

Outsourcing The Human Resource Function: Environmental And Organizational Characteristics That Affect Hr Performance, J. D. Lilly, D. A. Gray, Meghna Virick

Meghna Virick

A theoretical model is presented that identifies environmental and organizational characteristics that affect human resource (HR) performance in an organization. Specifically, we address the issue of when and under what circumstances does HR outsourcing contribute value to the firm by attempting to identify environmental and organizational characteristics that affect HR department performance and how HR outsourcing mediates that relationship. We propose that supplier competition in the HR provider market has a direct effect on the amount of HR outsourcing which in turn has a direct effect on HR performance. Environmental uncertainty (primary, competitive, and supplier) is proposed to moderate the …

A Farewell To Arm’S Length In Value Chain Responsibilities, Craig Caldwell

Craig B. Caldwell

No abstract provided.

How Groups Improve The Quality Of Balanced Scorecards, S. Hughes, K. Paulson-Gjerde, Craig Caldwell, P. Rouse

Craig B. Caldwell

No abstract provided.

A Farewell To Arm’S Length In Value Chain Responsibilities, Craig Caldwell, R. Phillips

Craig B. Caldwell

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance And Business Ethics: Insights From The Strategic Planning Experience, Ingrid Bonn, Josie Fisher

Ingrid Bonn

In this paper we develop an integrated approach towards corporate governance and business ethics. Our central argument is that organisations can learn from the development of strategic planning in the 1970s and 1980s. We identify three weaknesses – a bureaucratic and formalised approach, lack of implementation and lack of integration throughout the organisation – which were prevalent in strategic planning in the past and which are potentially just as problematic for an integrated corporate governance approach to business ethics. We suggest ways these weaknesses might be avoided and provide questions for boards of directors to consider when integrating ethical concerns …

Developing And Validating A Construct Of Entrepreneurial Intensity., J. Liao, Patrick Murphy, H. Welsch

Patrick J. Murphy

I n this article we define, validate, and propose a construct of entrepreneurial intensity, or the degree of entrepreneurship in firms. First, in defining the construct, we explore theoretical differences between entrepreneurial intensity and orientation in order to distinguish it. Second, we empirically validate a measure of entrepreneurial intensity using data based on a sample of 563 entrepreneurs. Third, we propose avenues for research on how entrepreneurial intensity distinguishes entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial action. Finally, we detail theoretical implications of using entrepreneurial intensity as an antecedent and outcome.

Value Chain Responsibility: A Farewell To Arm's Length., R. Phillips, Craig Caldwell

Craig B. Caldwell

Review Of Working For A Family Business: A Non-Family Employee's Guide To Success., Patrick J. Murphy

Patrick J. Murphy

No abstract provided.

Nonprofits At The Crossroad: Embrace Change, Learn To Compete, Art Stewart

Art Stewart

The tide of continuous change brought on by the impact of a global marketplace is impacting the fundamental way we conduct our relationships, commerce, and civic engagement as well as the formation and implementation of our public policy, and the manner in which we define and exercise our belief systems. Competition is now essential to acquiring what we need on both a personal and communal basis. We compete in the way we relate to each other - vying for attention and engagement, loyalty and trust, and physical needs. We compete in our civic engagement - striving for numbers of supporters, …

"Myth & Mystique: Growth Brands Are All About Marketplace Behavior", Art Stewart

Art Stewart

No abstract provided.

Re-Claiming Authentic Leadership For Nonprofit Sustainability, Art Stewart

Art Stewart

In the past few years, we have witnessed stunning examples of great - and greatly flawed - leadership that has contributed to a new norm of regulation and accountability, breached stakeholder trust, and dubious public confidence. No consensus is needed to acknowledge that the nonprofit sector has suffered from a lack of leadership, whether it is social service agencies, advocacy organizations, charities and foundations, philanthropic institutions or associations. Many top executives of nonprofit organizations have displayed consistent shortcomings in vision, courage, responsibility, and commitment. Still too, many others have exercised impressive perseverance in the name of service, education, and social …

An Integrated Framework For Discovering Digital Library Collections, Karen S. Calhoun

Karen S Calhoun

Information seekers are generally on their own to discover and use a research library's growing array of digital collections, and coordination of these collections' development and maintenance is often not optimal. The frequent lack of a conscious design for how collections fit together is of concern because it means that research libraries are not making the most of the substantial investments they are making in digital initiatives. Discussing the author’s team’s research, this paper proposes a framework for a research library's digital collections that offers integrated discovery and a set of best practices to underpin collection building, federated access, and …

A Conceptual History Of Entrepreneurial Thought., Patrick J. Murphy, J. Liao, H. P. Welsch

Patrick J. Murphy

We introduce a conceptual history of knowledge expansion in the entrepreneurship field based on a logical mechanism of conjecture and refutation. Our undertaking interprets and explains the emergence, rise, re-emergence, and decline of key problem situations and theories through prehistoric, economic, and multidisciplinary movements in entrepreneurial thought.