Business Commons^™

Empirical Problems Using The Efficient Frontier To Find Optimal Weights In Asset Classes, Matthew Maher, Harry White, Phil Fry

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study documents the transitory nature of "efficient" weights in six commonly employed asset classes, going beyond a simple stock and bond classes and using a 30 year data window. We review the literature on asset class diversification, including its failures during the recent credit crisis. Results show that asset class diversification benefits are inconsistent and, contrary to common academic wisdom before recent times, historical asset class covariances (even estimated with decades of data) are poor estimates of future values.

Comparing The Understandability Of Alternative Data Warehouse Schemas: An Empirical Study, David Schuff, Karen Corral, Ozgur Turetken

IT and Supply Chain Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

An easily understood data warehouse model enables users to better identify and retrieve its data. It also makes it easier for users to suggest changes to its structure and content. Through an exploratory, empirical study, we compared the understandability of the star and traditional relational schemas. The results of our experiment contradict previous findings and show schema type did not lead to significant performance differences for a content identification task. Further, the relational schema actually led to slightly better results for a schema augmentation task. We discuss the implications of these findings for data warehouse design and future research.

The Role Of Identity In Disposal: Lessons From Mothers’ Disposal Of Children’S Possessions, Barbara J. Phillips, Trina Sego

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study uses depth interviews with mothers about their disposal of children’s possessions to craft a new understanding of the role of identity in disposal. Our study asks: How does identity influence the disposal process of ordinary possessions? A disposal identity continuum of keepers and discarders emerged from the data. This new understanding suggests that disposal involves decisions regarding the match of possession to mother, partner, child, and family identities. When disposal identities lead to conflict between the actors in the disposal decision, decision makers use coping strategies such as subterfuge, avoidance, forced choice, and training/discussion. In addition, the disposal …

The “Boise Pit”: A Peek Beyond The Wall, Paris Gaudin, John Hagadorne, Justy Thomas, Chris Warth, Adam Wolfe

College of Business and Economics Poster Presentations

Our research examines the impact of the “Boise Pit” on the local area economy. We consider the lost tax revenue and missed opportunity costs to estimate the overall cost to society. In light of the recent budget cuts and subsequent controversial educational reform plans being adopted to stretch our tax dollars, this research explores how a completed Boise Tower project could have generated much-needed revenue for the city. How many teacher salaries, buses or laptops could the Boise School District afford with the potential revenue from a completed Boise Tower project?

Getting To The Real Story: What Vietnamese Business People Wish Foreigners Understood About Doing Business In Emerging And Transition Countries Like Vietnam – Before They Start, Nancy K. Napier, Vuong Quan Hoang

International Business Program

Knowledge sharing typically examines organizational transfer of knowledge, often from headquarters to subsidiaries, from developed country sites to emerging country sites, or from host to local employees. Yes, recent research, such as Prahalad's Bottom of the Pyramid, raises the question of reverse transfer of knowledge, or whether knowledge could and should be transferred from local sites to home country sites within an organization. As several emerging economies build their capabilities in knowledge, research and development, marketing, and the like, it only makes sense to consider what type of knowledge and how to transfer it in reverse or bi-directional manners. …

Legal And Ethical Challenges Of Corporate Social Networking, Gundars Kaupins, Susan Park J.D.

Susan Park

Many corporations have embraced online social networking to supplement their marketing programs and communications with employees, customers, vendors, and others. Corporations also use social networking to discover inappropriate employee behavior, encourage productivity, recruit individuals, and investigate job applicants and current employees.

How Firms Learn From The Uses Of Different Types Of Management Control Systems, Michael T. Lee, Sally K. Widener

Accountancy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many users of management control systems claim that a system’s effectiveness in creating business performance resides in its ability to facilitate learning and decision making. Yet this does not explain why users of management control systems have varying levels of success in terms of business performance with these tools. Our IMA-sponsored research project1 examines the following questions that relate management control system use, learning, and performance:

• How are management control systems used?

• How do organizations learn from management control systems?

• What uses of management control systems and styles of learning characterize high performing firms?

To answer these …

Issues In The Development Of Location Privacy Theory, Robert Minch

IT and Supply Chain Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Issues in the development of location privacy theory are identified and organized based on both technological considerations and more general privacy theories. Three broad categories containing six issues are described: location (including sensing methods and location properties), privacy (including definition and subject identification), and information flows (from location information acquisition through storage, use, and sharing). An influence diagram model is presented which relates these issues in context and may serve as a basis for further theory development, empirical research, and public policy discussion.