Business Commons^™

At-A-Glance Chart: How Nonprofits Can Use Ai/Chatgpt, Sam Calhoun, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Authorship In The Age Of Algorithms: Adapting Copyright Law For Ai-Generated Content, Sydney Thomas

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the relationship between technological advancement and legal protection for human creators has become increasingly critical. From Stephen Hawking's admonition of the potential risks of unregulated AI to Sam Altman's advocacy for proactive regulation, this paper navigates the evolving landscape of AI innovation and copyright law. By examining the challenges posed by AI-generated content, including issues of intellectual property infringement and privacy concerns, it highlights the need for adaptive legal frameworks. Strategic enhancements to copyright law must be developed, such as bolstering fair use doctrine and expanding creator rights, to ensure the protection of …

A Blueprint For Future Achievements For Nonprofits, William B. Calder

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Nonprofit organizations hire strong leaders to articulate a vivid and persuasive picture of how the organization will be better, in a significant way, than what currently exists. Leaders should not underestimate the use of a powerful vision, as it is needed to help define the issues and challenges for stakeholders (inside and outside the organization). Leaders need to describe what success looks like and continue to task all stakeholders to assist in building the “dream.”

Operational and staffing challenges are more difficult for NPOs without an articulated, compelling, and concise vision statement. The resultant costs of not having this statement …

Revolutionising Nonprofit Verification With Ai Powered Intelligence, J Unsdorfer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

In an era where stakeholders increasingly demand clarity and honesty, the importance of corporate transparency has reached unprecedented levels. Both businesses and nonprofits are now faced with the challenge of effectively demonstrating their integrity and trustworthiness. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers promising solutions to these challenges by enabling deeper insights into corporate relationships. Venturefy, an Israel-based company, is at the forefront of this movement, using AI to decode complex data sets and verify corporate connections. This article explores how AI works, Venturefy’s unique approach to transparency, and its significant partnership with WikiCharities to enhance transparency in the nonprofit sector.

Research Summaries: Artificial Intelligence And Data For Nonprofits, Erica Jensen

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Exploring How Sino-Business Culture Informs United States Business Negotiation Practice, Chase Peterson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Numerous scholarly works have explored the intricacies of negotiating with China. This paper aims to add value to previous research by providing insights deduced from cross-cultural communication with individuals from the People's Republic of China (PRC), while emphasizing the advantages of adaptation of Chinese business culture by U.S. negotiators. The United States Institute of Peace observed several biases among U.S. negotiators including a tendency to accept initial solutions prematurely, as well as a lack of understanding regarding counterparts' objectives and contextual circumstances (Quinney 2002). The strengths of Chinese business culture help remedy these tendencies and inform Western negotiators how different …

Strategy In Action: The Creation Of The Codex, Joshua Lucas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis provides the foundation of a larger project, namely the Strategy Unlocked Codex. It is my task to provide sufficient content for ten strategic theories to assist the public at large by enhancing their understanding of business strategy and discovering applications in their professional situations. The ten theories have been researched, analyzed, and explained both in print and by film. Videos, both short and long, as well as integrated graphics have been developed to further demonstrate theory understanding. The result is a format that can be replicated for others to use in the population of the Strategy Unlocked Codex. …

Classifying Forecasts, Michael S. Drake, James R. Moon Jr., James D. Warren

Faculty Publications

We employ a novel machine learning technique to classify analysts’ forecast revisions into five types based on how the revision weighs publicly available signals. We label these forecast types as quant, sundry, contrarian, herder, and independent forecasts. Our tests reveal that a greater diversity of forecast types within the consensus is associated with increased consensus dispersion and improved consensus accuracy. Additionally, consensus diversity is associated with an improved information environment for firms, as reflected in reduced earnings announcement information asymmetry and volatility, higher earnings response coefficients, and faster price formation. Our study sheds light on how analysts revise their forecasts …

Latest Research (Summaries) On Charitable Giving, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Charitable Giving: Full Issue, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement, Elise Lael Kieffer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

This article provides background information on the establishment of an endowment that serves specifically to provide experiential learning opportunities for students in and around the university. This case study may serve as a guide for higher education programs in the nonprofit discipline to promote both active philanthropy and learning for students.

This article provides an examination of student reflections following their participation in an endowment funded experiential learning opportunity with a hope of promoting this teaching method in other nonprofit and philanthropic educational programs. The results of this analysis assist in the development of greater understanding into how the experiential …

The Dos And Don'ts Of Charitable Giving, Sumaya Ali, Mandie Carter, Lakell Archer, Erica Jensen, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Nonprofits Should Adopt A User-Centric Change Model To Scale Corporate Environmental Action Faster, Doug Miller

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Pollution levels and ecosystem degradation continue to worsen, suggesting the insufficiency of current approaches to reverse these problematic trends. For environmental nonprofits, the current theory of change revolves around developing techno-economic analysis about environmental problems and available solutions, building public awareness around this analysis, and motivating decision makers to set goals. Given present environmental realities and the limited success of their current theory of change, environmental nonprofits should transform how they execute their work, what they produce, and how they coordinate with each other. Instead, nonprofits should begin putting the user—business decision makers as well as policymakers—front and center as …

Russia: Increased Corruption And Deterioration Of Freedom, Is There Hope?, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, Russia has been plagued by widespread political corruption (Warren, 2023; Vasilev & Felton, 2024). This corruption has been characterized by the misuse of public funds, bribery, and extortion. It has also involved the suppression of political dissent and the erosion of democratic institutions. As corruption runs rampant within the Russian government, neighboring countries are also recipients of corrupt efforts to destabilize their governments, erode their democracy and jeopardize the support these neighboring countries can give to the security of Euruope as a whole (Stănescu, 2023). There is an increasing need for the …

Transformational Experiences And Decision-Making Processes: Factors Influencing The Choice Of College Major, Ashley Hunsaker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the influence of transformational experiences on decision making when it comes to choosing one’s major. Participants attended a one-on-one interview with the primary researcher where questions were asked about how they chose their major and how much they enjoy it. Participants were given the chance to tell stories about how they discovered their major and how they decided to pursue it. Results suggested that transformational experiences, internal and external factors, and mentorship led students to choose and stick with a major where they felt a sense of belonging and “fit.” When belonging and perceived fit were not …

The Implementation Of Transformative Learning Theory And Immersion, Kelsi Niepraschk

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Through this creative project, Transformative Learning Theory and immersion are implemented into the redesign of a core business class in Brigham Young University’s Experience Design and Management discipline. Experience design principles of empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test are discussed and used to map out the redesign of EXDM 415, Experience-Centric Management. Empathy data was collected through course evaluations, emailed correspondence, and word of mouth. The data was then used to define underlying needs of students and potential concerns from previous iterations of the course. The class prototype consists of newly developed learning outcomes/objectives, immersive class simulations, and an employee …

Understanding Product Interest Through Mouse-Cursor Tracking Analysis, Christopher Coors, Jeffrey Jenkins, Joseph S. Valacich, Markus Weinmann

Faculty Publications

With third-party cookies being banned, alternative methods to assess users’ interests online are necessary. We propose that analyzing mouse cursor movements can help address this need. Based on the response activation model, we hypothesize that interest in a product will decrease the user’s movement speed and increase the number of submovements. We conducted an online study that monitored users’ mouse movements while they were presented with several products and navigated to a button to indicate purchase intention (yes/no). Following this, participants ranked their interest in each product. Contrary to our prediction, we found that product interest increased speed and decreased …

Is It All Hype? Chatgpt’S Performance And Disruptive Potential In The Accounting And Auditing Industries, Marc Eulerich, Aida Sanatizadeh, Hamid Vakilzadeh, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

ChatGPT frequently appears in the media, with many predicting significant disruptions, especially in the fields of accounting and auditing. Yet research has demonstrated relatively poor performance of ChatGPT on student assessment questions. We extend this research to examine whether more recent ChatGPT models and capabilities can pass major accounting certification exams including the Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Enrolled Agent (EA) certification exams. We find that the ChatGPT 3.5 model cannot pass any exam (average score across all assessments of 53.1%). However, with additional enhancements, ChatGPT can pass all sections of each …

Patience Is Key: The Time It Takes To See Benefits From Continuous Auditing, Marc Eulerich, Benjamin Fligge, Vanessa Lopez Kasper, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Despite research showing numerous benefits to continuous auditing, uptake by internal audit functions has been quite slow. Using field data from a multinational company, we study two possible reasons for the slow uptake of continuous auditing—the time it takes for continuous auditing to result in measurable reductions in audit risks and that not every type of risk is equally likely to improve from continuous auditing. Results suggest it takes three years before observing significant risk reductions from implementing continuous auditing. We also find that the benefits of implementing continuous auditing vary by risk factor, ranging in improvement from 0 percent …

Reassessing Assurance In An Automated World: Insights From Board Members, Executives, And Internal Auditors, Scott Emett, Marc Eulerich, Jeffrey Pickerd, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Technological advances that automate work continue to transform the accounting profession. We examine whether automation impacts resource allocation within the internal audit function (IAF), a unique setting that allows us to compare demand for assurance activities with demand for consulting activities. We conduct an experiment in which experienced board members, executives, and internal auditors make budget recommendations for a company’s IAF that developed automations that improved the efficiency of the IAF. Results show that across all groups, participants respond to these efficiencies by decreasing the IAF’s total budget but retaining the productive capacity of the IAF. The budget cuts are …

Tax Sentiment And Compliance: Evidence From Social Media, Andrew Belnap, Jacob Thornock, Kevin Standridge, Braden Williams

Faculty Publications

Motivations for voluntary tax compliance that fall outside of a standard, rational model can be intrinsic or extrinsic. We use social media rhetoric about taxes to create a measure of tax sentiment that reflects taxpayers’ extrinsic, behavioral motivations for voluntary compliance, and then examine the association between public tax sentiment and tax compliance. Our machinelearning based approach for measuring sentiment uses millions of tax-related tweets, which vary by time and geography. We find that tax sentiment is negatively associated with tax compliance. Our main findings and cross-sectional tests are consistent with the notion that paying one’s taxes is a way …

The Effect Of Economic Nexus On Sales Tax Avoidance And Retail Purchases, Zackery D. Fox, John R. Robinson, Stephen A. Stewart

Faculty Publications

We investigate the impact of adopting economic nexus laws on local consumer consumption patterns. To do so, we focus on a natural experiment involving Washington State, which enacted economic nexus in October of 2018, and its neighboring state Oregon, which has no sales tax. Utilizing data from the Nielsen Consumer Panel survey, we estimate a difference-in-differences regression to test whether the imposition of sales tax on internet purchases in Washington led to an increase in brick and mortar (B&M) retail purchases relative to those in Oregon. We report evidence that consumers in Washington increased purchases at B&M retailers relative to …

Parent Motivations For Enrolling Their Young Children In Early Childhood Programs: An Application Of The Theory Of Planned Behaviour, Rachel A. Mcgovern, Camilla Hodge, Edward Ruddell

Faculty Publications

This study used the theory of planned behaviour to identify and determine the relative influence of factors influencing parents’ decisions to enrol their young children (3 to 5 years old) in early childhood programs at a specific museum venue. An eliciting questionnaire was distributed to museum members with at least one child 3–5 years old to elicit outcome expectancies, normative beliefs, and control beliefs, and these responses were developed into items for the main questionnaire. Regression and correlation analyses were conducted to determine factors associated with parents’ intention to enrol their children. Parents across socioeconomic and educational backgrounds indicated they …

How Can Chatbots Improve The Gender Gap In Information Systems?, Rebecca Berthelsen, Cherileigh L. Chandler, Lauren Dean, Mark Keith, Ryan M. Schuetzle, Degan Kettles, Greg Anderson

Faculty Publications

The underrepresentation of women in STEM fields, including information systems (IS), is an ongoing issue that warrants our efforts to understand why a gender gap exists in this domain and what can be done to mitigate it. Prior research shows that women often have lower levels of self-efficacy than men regarding information systems tasks, which may explain the discrepancy between genders. In a previous study, we explored the effectiveness of a chatbot programming tutor in building self-efficacy of IS students and found that chatbot usage, which was self-reported, improved self-efficacy for all students but had a greater effect on self-efficacy …

The Impact Of Changing Disclosure Requirements, Competition, And Private Capital On Firm Exit Methods And Premiums, James C. Brau, Ninon K. Sutton, Qiancheng Zheng

Faculty Publications

Changing disclosure requirements and the evolution of US markets in the 21st century have created historic shifts in the exit strategies and payoffs for private firms. The propensity to sell to an acquirer has dominated firm exits in recent decades, especially for smaller private firms in highly concentrated industries. Exceptions to the merger exit preference are venture capital‐backed firms, which exhibit an enduring preference for IPOs, likely due to the reputation effects associated with this strategy. While the premium for IPO exits has exceeded that for M&A exits in the past, we document a reversal in this pricing trend: in …

Risk Perception, Cooperation, And Emotional Distress During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Exploring Adaptive Risk Perception, Haiping Liao, Rebecca L. Monk, James Gaskin, Jin-Liang Wang

Faculty Publications

During the COVID-19 pandemic, while risk perception may promote public cooperation with pandemic prevention, it may also increase emotional distress and thus endanger mental health. This study aimed to examine whether there is an adaptive risk perception pattern that fits both needs of pandemic control and mental health protection. Two waves of Chinese participants (N sample 1 = 1633, N sample 2 = 1899) completed the Scale of Pandemic Risk Perception, the Scale of Public Cooperation with Pandemic Prevention, the Epidemic Worry Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affective Schedule during Feb 3rd to 5th, and during Feb 18th to …

The Intellectual Structure Of Audit Committee Research: A Bibliometric Analysis (1969 – 2020), Joel Behrend, Marc Eulerich, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The audit committee is a widely recognized mechanism of effective corporate governance. We advance prior literature reviews by using bibliometric analysis techniques that comprehensively process large bodies of bibliometric information. We base inferences on citation patterns of 1,173 articles to identify concepts that “shine through” within the scientific understanding of audit committees. Using content analysis, we then analyze these concepts and explore existing interrelationships. We document a declining influence of audit committee research, as well as a widening gap between the quantitative and qualitative research camps. While the former is mostly derivative in nature, the latter produces innovative insights on …

The Effects Of Strategic Alignment And Strategic Clarity On Multidimensional Task Performance, Steven D. Smith, Tyler F. Thomas

Faculty Publications

The alignment of a firm’s performance measures with its strategic objectives is fundamental to effective management control, at least in part because performance measures and stated strategy represent separate sources of information that workers can rely on to guide their efforts. We experimentally examine the effects of strategic alignment and strategic clarity (i.e., the specificity with which strategic objectives are communicated) on workers’ performance on a multidimensional task. We predict and find that alignment improves performance under a vague strategy statement but impairs performance under a clear strategy statement. These results are consistent with strategic clarity and performance measure alignment …

Hidden Wealth And Automatic Information Sharing, Andrew Belnap, Jacob Thornock, Braden Williams

Faculty Publications

In recent years, governments across the globe have implemented automatic information-sharing measures as a revolutionary tool to combat offshore tax evasion. Using hand-collected and private Internal Revenue Service data on participation in the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, we provide some of the first evidence of the costs and quality of information shared via automatic information sharing. We estimate that the aggregate costs borne by foreign financial institutions (FFIs) were $31–$52 billion. Furthermore, although 97 percent of FFIs have committed to sharing information with US tax authorities, there is significant variation in quality. Quality is lower for accounts held by …

An Examination Of The Stability Of The Remembering Self When Measuring Social Connection Derived From A Shared Leisure Experience, Camilla Hodge, Karen K. Melton, Mat D. Duerden, Mark A. Widmer, Aubrey Rushton, Alexis Kelley

Faculty Publications

Social connection has been identified as a public health priority, and is often positioned, in various forms, as an outcome of leisure experiences. In cases of assessing the hedonic quality of experiences, research has identified a relative permanence and stability in the remembering self; however, whether the same is true when measuring social connection is unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether recall of social connection after a structured, shared leisure experience changed over time. We compared assessments of social connection among a sample of 68 adults immediately following four structured, shared leisure experiences and again four weeks later. …