Business Commons^™

It-Business Strategic Alignment: Essays Examining Types Of Alignment And Their Relationship With Firm Performance, Jennifer Gerow

All Dissertations

While Information-Technology (IT)-Business Strategic Alignment (hereafter referred to as alignment) continues to be a topic of great concern to both researchers and practitioners alike, it is often misunderstood and, as such, many organizations find alignment difficult to achieve. In particular, alignment is often defined in many different ways, its operational measures are used inconsistently, and it is unclear how it can be attained. In this dissertation, we assert that researchers should include explicit references to the type of alignment under study, that adequate and consistent operational measures of each alignment type are necessary, and that we need a better understanding …

Optimization Of Crime Control Resources In A Society, Steven S. Thompson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper looks at the economics of crime control through the Phillips-Votey Societal Cost Function model and mathematically proves that there is a socially optimal point at which society should be devoting resources towards the prevention of crime. This allows the society to minimize the social cost of crime given a theoretical cost constraint. This paper take the model further by conducting comparative analysis to determine the effect that changes in the functional form of crime generation, and crime prevention will have on society as represented in the model. This paper also looks at the counter intuitive effect that growth …

Marketing Dietary Supplements: Public Relations And The Ability Of Pharmaceutical Companies To Retain And Develop Consumer Relationships, Nicole Schmidt

Journalism

Dietary supplements have grown in popularity in recent years, with multivitamins the most commonly used. As the awareness of dietary supplements continues to increase, there are more chances for consumers to misuse or misunderstand the risks of taking dietary supplements. Public relations, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies should work to educate the consumer about the uses and risks of supplements. This paper addresses the issues associated with dietary supplements, particularly in the area of weight-loss supplements. Adverse side effects are addressed, as well as how public relations can influence the outcome of pharmaceutical companies’ relationships with consumers. Public relations can help …

A Comparison Of Internet Marketing Methods Utilized By Higher Education Institutions, Joseph Clayton Mccoy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Use of Internet marketing techniques in higher education to attract prospective students is relatively new. While the research is recent, there are several studies that identify what is most valuable to students seeking information on college web sites. Higher education is now facing increasing competition from for-profit schools and reduced funding from typical sources. This study examines how two different Carnegie classifications use Internet marketing techniques and identifies if there is a difference in how much they use these techniques. Content techniques and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques were examined for 56 higher education institutions in this study. Of the …

The Role Of Leadership In Facilitating The Performance Of Dispersed Teamwork, Jaime Beth Newell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A mature body of research on leadership has investigated the impact of a variety of leadership behaviors and styles on team performance. This corpus of work is built on an assumption that team leaders can motivate, direct, and monitor teams by way of sustained, personal contact with team members. However, this assumption is being challenged by recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Use of ICTs has altered traditional team-based structures, enabling organizations to employ teams composed of members who are dispersed across geographic boundaries, while severing the direct, personal ties leaders have to team members. Recent reviews of …

Business Intelligence Tools In A Developmental Environment: An Academic Module, Landon M. Hemsley

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Business Intelligence (BI), defined here as the creation and use of meaningful business information for management, has over the last 20 years shown over and over again its value to professional industry. The prevalence of BI has also demonstrated that a new brand of worker is needed to take advantage of the sophisticated tools available to modern industry. Evidence suggests modern universities have struggled to educate professionals on the tremendous impact BI can have on an organization if used properly. This work is a step in an endeavor to bridge that educational gap and generate an educational strategic advantage by …

The Valuation Of User-Generated Content: A Structural, Stylistic And Semantic Analysis Of Online Reviews, Noi Sian Koh

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The ability and ease for users to create and publish content has provided vast amount of online product reviews. However, the amount of data is overwhelmingly large and unstructured, making information difficult to quantify. This creates challenge in understanding how online reviews affect consumers’ purchase decisions. In my dissertation, I explore the structural, stylistic and semantic content of online reviews. Firstly, I present a measurement that quantifies sentiments with respect to a multi-point scale and conduct a systematic study on the impact of online reviews on product sales. Using the sentiment metrics generated, I estimate the weight that customers place …

An Analysis Of The Dynamic Properties Of The American Depositary Receipt Cross Market Premium, Jorge Vidal

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The American Depositary Receipt (ADR) cross-market premium is studied over a 20 year period. The dynamic properties of the cross-market premium are studied for the first time in a nonlinear smooth error correction framework using a smooth transition error correction model (STECM) and compared against a linear model and two other nonlinear model specifications. The results indicate the ADR cross-market premium is more appropriately estimated when the nonlinearity, smooth transition, and cointegration properties present in the premium are estimated simultaneously with a STECM. The estimates of the STECM indicate arbitrage opportunities in the ADR market are rare and dissipate quickly. …

The Long-Term Impact Of A Loyalty Program: An Evaluation From A Las Vegas Casino Hotel, Myongjee Yoo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Loyalty programs are popular marketing strategies intended to attract, maintain, and enhance customer relationships. Despite the widespread usage of loyalty programs across various businesses, its effectiveness has not been well validated. Few empirical studies attempted to evaluate the value of loyalty programs but the findings have been conflicting with each other. Given the competitive climate of such a highly saturated competitive market of the hospitality industry, it is meaningful for hospitality marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of loyalty programs to increase customer retention and profitability. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a hospitality …

Use Of Preventative Health Care Services In Hispanic Workers In Manufacturing Sector In South Texas, Pooja Chopra

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study analyses the factors that determine the intensity of use of preventive health care services for a sample of Hispanic manufacturing workers in South Texas (RGV). Logistic regression is used to estimate the effect of health insurance, age, income level and education on the use of preventive health care of Hispanic workers in the manufacturing sector in South Texas (RGV). The outcome variables are vaccinations, tests and screening for women and men. The sample includes 228 manufacturing workers from the RGV. People with health insurance were more likely to use preventive care services such as vaccination for flu, hepatitis, …

Essays On Customer Training And Education In Service Design, Uzay Damali

All Dissertations

Customers who can effectively perform the tasks necessary in their service participation, and who are motivated to perform these tasks, experience improved satisfaction and service quality. In order to ensure customers have adequate skills and motivation, service designs incorporate practices which train and educate them. The goal of this research was to investigate how customers can effectively be trained and educated so that they can perform their service tasks. Based on various theories used in the field of management, we developed several research models to investigate this issue. These models were tested through survey data collected from adult patients with …

Crafting A Career Using Cps And Foursight, Morgan E. Milovich

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

ABSTRACT OF PROJECT

Crafting a Career Using CPS and FourSight

The purpose of my project is to develop a case study of how I will use Creative Problem Solving (CPS) and an attention to my Foursight preferences to grow my existing craft business into a viable career, rather than having it as just a hobby.

By utilizing the CPS Thinking Skills Model and having a greater awareness of my Foursight preferences, I was able to move from a dream to a reality and come out the other end of this project with a fully functioning, profitable business rooted firmly in …

What Is Mission Critical In The Hotel Guest Room: Examining In-Room Guest Empowerment Technologies, Pelin Nasoz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined 18 in-room technologies and identified the ones perceived to be mission critical for the hotel guests. It also determined the differences in guest empowerment technology preferences and expectations across generations, purpose of travel, and travel frequency. Moreover, it investigated whether the quality of in-room technologies impacts guests' decision in choosing a hotel.

The data were collected through an online survey. A total of 508 people responded to the survey. An importance and performance analysis was utilized to identify the mission critical in-room technologies for the hotels. The analysis indicated that in-room movie on demand services, in-room wireless …

Incorporating Ethics Into Accounting Education: A Proposal For An Undergraduate Accounting Ethics Course For The University Of Tennessee, Knoxville, Courtney Michaluk

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Examining Revenue Management Practices In Las Vegas Casino Resorts, Arun Tanpanuwat

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The overall goal of this study was to examine Revenue Management (RM) practices in Las Vegas casino resorts. A great deal of research has been done on RM in the hospitality industry. The academic research has examined RM in hospitality in general, but not specifically in casino resorts, which gain their revenue from both rooms and resort amenities. Moreover, the academic literature often show high-level mathematic-based solutions or statistical applications, but not necessarily pragmatic techniques for practitioners. This qualitative study investigates the extent to which the essential fundamentals of any RM system are implemented successfully by casino RM professionals and …

A Comparative Study Of Indicator Bacteria Present In Ice And Soda From Las Vegas Food Establishments, Kimberly Jo Hertin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Microbial analysis has long been used as an indicator of water quality. Since the passing of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, microbial standards have been strictly set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure that the public health is protected from bacterial pathogens. The bacteriological quality of water generally deteriorates as it travels from water treatment facilities through the main distribution system and into private plumbing and distribution systems. For example, Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) values typically increase once the water has entered plumbing devices such as beverage vending machines. Upon reaching a private facility, the opportunity …

Three Essays On The Influence Of Formal Institutions On Entrepreneurship., Michael David Crum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays in which I examine the influence of formal institutions on entrepreneurs and new firms. In the first essay, "The Influence of Institutions on the Likelihood of Self-Employment: A Multilevel Analysis," I examine how institutions at the country-level are related to the likelihood that individuals in those country are self-employed. Country-level measures of formal institutions are paired with individual-level data on self-employment from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Reynolds et al., 2005). Using the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World index and the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom separately as measures of institutions, …

The “Indie” Sound: A Band's Guide To Success In The Competitive Indie Market. An Evaluation Of Touring Trends & Helpful Tricks Of The Trade., Nicole L. Stratman

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Rethinking A Carbon Tax In An Era Of Budget Deficits, Chad Covert

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Hiring And Recruitment As Rhetorical Strategies: An Analysis Of The Way Businesses Approach Graduating University Students And Influence Their Choices, Sean D. Gibson

Communication Studies

To answer the question, which rhetorical strategies are most persuasive to university graduates regarding hiring and recruitment, I surveyed three classrooms with a questionnaire that gauged university graduates attraction to three different types of rhetorical strategies. The rhetoric came from three major businesses that recruit university graduates: College Works Painting, Peace Corps, and Hewlett Packard.

Each one of these businesses uses a different type of strategy to recruit university graduates. College Works Painting uses an Experience Illusion strategy based on the premise that the company will help train university graduates to become managers and leaders in business. Peace Corps’ uses …

The Influence Of Strategies Used To Communicate Sustainable Corporate Responsibility On Reputation Of A Major Airport, Benno D. Hoffmann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Self-presentation of a corporation as a citizen committed to sustainable corporate responsibility can, according to scholarly findings, help the organization improve its reputation among key stakeholders. The purpose of this case study was to explore the success of one major airport in aligning communication strategies to improve its reputation. The research question involved how effectively a major German airport communicated its commitment to sustainable corporate responsibility to its key stakeholders during 2005--2009. Of particular interest was how key stakeholders perceived the airport's stance towards the impacts of aircraft noise. Corporate documents, newspaper articles, and semistructured interviews comprised the data. Data …

Real Options Models In Real Estate, Jin Won Choi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Our aim in this thesis is to investigate the usefulness of real options analysis, taking case studies of problems in real estate. In the realm of real estate, we consider the following three problems. First, we consider the valuation and usefulness of presale contracts of condominiums, which can be viewed as similar to call options on condominiums. Secondly, we consider the valuation of farm land from the perspective of land developers, who may think of farm land as being similar to call options on subdivision lots. Third, we consider the valuation of opportunities to install solar panels on properties, in …

How To Navigate Public Accounting Recruitment, Jill Heather Aoki

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For many accounting graduates, public accounting is an excellent place to start a career. However, recruitment at accounting firms is highly competitive. The majority of personnel are hired through internships, and competition for these positions is fierce. The process usually spans over multiple years and involves participating in leadership seminars, attending social events, and much more in addition to interviewing. Successful placement requires not only exceptional academic achievements but also strong relationships with personnel at the firm. One primary differentiator among the numerous public accounting firms is their people and culture. Other factors include local clients and specializations. Thus, candidates …

The Impact Of Human Capital And Organizational Characteristics On The Business Value Of Information Technology, Shady Fraiha

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In order for a company to operate effectively within today’s marketplace, an information system (IS) represents a necessary business asset in terms of efficiency and productivity. Still, despite the ongoing advances in technology, an IS stands out as an expensive asset due to the amount of change that it brings to organizational life. Its real value, however, must be examined in terms of its interaction with other resources of the firm. Hence, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect the business value of information technology (BVIT). This research addresses the human capital characteristics and organizational characteristics of a …

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Implementing Wastewater Treatment Facilities In Beer Breweries, Jaffer (Jeff) Shah-Ganai

Agribusiness

The purpose of this study was to both see the effects of wastewater on profitability as well as determine an efficient way of dealing with that wastewater. In addition to finding the most efficient way of treating wastewater, the cost of implementing such a technology was also discussed. Two technologies were specifically talked about and those were an anaerobic digester and a two stage anaerobic digester. Between the three breweries that were discussed, two of them use one of those pieces of equipment; Sierra Nevada has an anaerobic digester and Red Hook has a two stage anaerobic digester.

To analyze …

Institucionet Financiare Dhe Ndikimi Në Ekonominë Globale, Samire Kurtishi

Theses and Dissertations

Duke e ditur se institucionet financiare kanë ndikim shumë të rëndësishëm në ekonominë e një vendi ne kemi vendosur që të marrim për temë të diplomës dhe ta shqyrtojmë më shumë në mënyrë që të kuptojmë rreth kësaj teme si dhe të sqarojmë kuptimin e tyre. Ne gjatë studimit të temës Institucionet financiare dhe ndikimi në ekonomi kemi mësuar për funksionet e tyre kryesore, llojet e institucioneve financiare dhe ndikimin e bankës qendrore që ka në to. Gjatë shqyrtimit të kësaj teme ne kemi mësuar edhe për institucionet financiare jobankare, Organizatat financiare ndërkombëtare, Organizatat financiare Regjionale etj.

7 Në këtë …

Swot Analysis Of The Wind Energy Project Of Company Antika, Bersant Beka

Theses and Dissertations

On the hectic and dynamic business environment, strategic approach of majority of the companies competing on the global market place worked toward development of the tools help them build competitive advantage and differential advantage on the market. Through this commitment, strategy as a concept was developed and it’s core elements including SWOT analysis. SWOT in general is very broad and can be used for various purposes including individually.

The SWOT analysis headings provide a good framework for reviewing strategy, position and direction of a company, product, project or person (career).

On this project SWOT analysis will be described as a …

Projecting A Preferred Identity: How Five Government Contractors Frame Their Corporate Brands Online, Nicole A. Merrifield

Masters Theses

This study expands framing research as a competitive intelligence tool for discerning the message strategies of a company’s competition. A content analysis of five Oak Ridge Associated Universities’ competitor websites was conducted to determine key subject areas and how each competitor positioned their business to a variety of publics. Using Entman (1991, 1993) and Hallahan’s (1999) framing research as the theoretical framework, the study reviews extant literature on corporate use of websites to frame reputations and cultivate relationships. Key findings reveal that ORAU’s competitors are more likely to promote new business, new hires/promotions, awards/honors, and project completions when issuing press …

The Newsvendor Problem With Pricing, Craig Sorochuk

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the newsvendor problem with pricing, the seller of homogeneous items attempts to maximize expected profit by setting price(s) and inventory level(s) before realizing exact demand for the items. The first step in solving the problem is to model this demand, which in the literature, is most commonly done using additive or multiplicative uncertainty, often without justification for either choice. From here, the problem is solved in a variety of ways. In this document, a model for demand is derived from two basic quantities: size of customer base and distribution of reservation prices of the population, where a reservation price …

The Ceo Effect: A Longitudinal, Multi-Level Analysis Of The Relationship Between Executive Orientation And Corporate Social Strategy, Daina D. Mazutis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic issue. Yet, research in this area has primarily focused on establishing a link between CSR and financial performance, with significantly less attention given to the antecedents of CSR at the individual, firm or industry levels. Notably, despite popular anecdotal examples that link the personal values, beliefs or characteristics of business leaders to the socially responsible nature of their companies, very little is actually known empirically about the relationship between executive orientation and the corporate social strategy pursued by the firm.

The empirical research study presented in this dissertation is designed to fill this …