Business Commons^™

Plastic Bags And Bamboo Stools, Grace R. Bithell

Marriott Student Review

This paper conducts a critical analyses of microfinance institutions. It gives an overview of the complexities of credit in developing countries and shows how microfinance fits into the equations. It discussed the successes and failures of microenterprises in trying to alleviate poverty. It also delves into best practices pertaining to lending to the poor and how microfinance is impacted by culture in developing nations.

Research Summary: Does Front-Loading Taxation Increase Savings? Evidence From Roth 401(K) Introductions, Parker Gardner

Marriott Student Review

Can taxing retirement savings upfront increase buying power in retirement? BYU Marriott School of Management Dean Brigitte Madrian and fellow researches examine the impact of Roth 401(k)s on retirement savings and find that the introduction of Roth 401(k)s does not impact the dollar amount invested into 401(k)s.

Student Athletes: A Scholarship Is Not Enough, Hunter Vance

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.

Does Spotify Really Hurt Artists?, Daniel Witt

Marriott Student Review

For years, members of the music industry have debated whether music streaming services like Spotify help or hurt artists. This article explores the pros and cons of music streaming and argues that overall, Spotify and services like it are helping artists to achieve their career goals.

Back To Beijing: The Future Of The Olympic Games, Jennifer Maynard

Marriott Student Review

Just four years ago, the IOC made an unprecedented decision to award Beijing with the 2022 Winter Olympic Games bid, making China the first Asian country ever to host both the Summer and Winter Games. What’s more, prior to this second visit to China, the Olympics will have been held in Pyeongchang (2018) and Tokyo (2020). At the same time that this national superpower has the opportunity to capitalize once again on the all eyes-on-China phenomenon, the IOC has the chance to truly go global.

Crowdfunding Challenges For New Charity Organizations, Katherine M. Lowe

Marriott Student Review

A look into the complicated and competitive world of nonprofit fundraising in the modern world. With a special emphasis on the struggles new nonprofits face in differentiating their services and attracting donors through online crowdfunding.

Brexit: Uk's Savior Or Downfall?, Amelia Charles

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.

Strive To Survive: The Redbox Example, Jake N. Conlin

Marriott Student Review

As technology continues to progress, companies can either adapt with technology or die. Advancements in technology should be used to better satisfy consumers. Companies that refuse to update their technology will not be able to survive in the future. Each company must make the most of its current technology, utilize new technology, and notify its customers of changes in its use of technology. Redbox finds itself at the crossroads of adapting or dying. Redbox can apply these three steps by milking its existing disc rental market, making the move to streaming, and marketing the new streaming service to consumers.

Full Issue: Undaunted (Volume 3: Issue 2), Marianna Richardson

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.

The Trouble With Twitter, Josh Kjar

Student Works

Freedom of speech and censorship balance on a precarious scale in the US. With the advent of social media, this balance has been troubled due to the migration of public conversation to a private space where freedom of speech is no longer ensured. This paper dives into the complexities of free speech and censorship, their current status in the US today, the way that social media and private ownership challenge their balance, and concludes with an argument for a democratized balance through modest government oversight.

Amphibious Entrepreneurs And The Origins Of Invention, Kurt Sandholtz, Walter W. Powell

Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we examine entrepreneurs who carry ideas, technologies, values, and assumptions between previously unrelated spheres of economic or cultural activity, and in the process, change the existing order of things. We label such individuals amphibious entrepreneurs and explore their characteristics via four case studies. Their stories suggest a distinct species within the genus of entrepreneur: more pragmatic than heroic, and as likely to invent by not knowing any better as by calculative creation. We discuss their role in creating interstitial spaces, contrast them to other boundary-spanning actors, and identify directions for future research at the intersection of social …

A Quasi-Experimental Study Of The Effect Of Experience Staging Techniques On Engagement, Emerson Ferrell Watanabe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of experience staging techniques (personalization through co-creation and multisensory stimuli) on engagement level. This study also explores the possible contribution of experience staging techniques as practical tools that recreation professionals can use to better engage participants in recreation activities and events. A 2-way univariate ANOVA revealed no significant relationship between the use of co-creative and multisensory stimulating techniques and engagement levels in participants (F (3,200) = .263, p = .826, partial η2 = .004). Practical applications for recreation professionals and further research opportunities are discussed.

The Double-Edged Sword Of Jurisdictional Entrenchment: Explaining Human Resources Professionals’ Failed Strategic Repositioning, Kurt Sandholtz, Daisy Chung, Isaac Waisberg

Faculty Publications

To protect themselves against deskilling and obsolescence, professionals must periodically revise their claims to authority and expertise. Although we understand these dynamics in the broader system of professions, we have a less complete understanding of how this process unfolds in specific organizational contexts. Yet given the ubiquity of embedded professionals, this context is where jurisdictional shifts increasingly take place.Drawing on a comparative ethnographic study of human resources (HR) professionals in two engineering firms, we introduce the concept of jurisdictional entrenchment to explain the challenges embedded professionals face when they attempt to redefine their jurisdiction. Jurisdictional entrenchment describes a condition in …

The Negative Impact Of Positive Stereotyping: Relationship Between Positive Stereotypes, Perceived Competence And Perceived Potential For Leadership, Megan Chan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

For many years, Asian Americans have been positively stereotyped as the most successful racial group in America. Yet, very few Asian Americans occupy top leadership positions. This research investigates how positive stereotyping affects managers’ perception towards Asian Americans’ level of competence and potential for leadership. I conducted a scenario study with a sample of 315 people working and residing in the United States. These participants assumed the role of decisions makers and were presented with information about job applicants where the variable data (i.e. race) was manipulated. Based on the differences in ratings on Asian Americans and non-Asian Americans, I …

Cognitive Patterns Of Information Addiction, Rayman Meservy

Journal of Undergraduate Research

As suggested by the title, this project focused on understanding the Cognitive Patterns of Information Addiction. Throughout the course of the project we have learned quite a bit about this concept and have refined our narrow focus on addiction to a more broad focus on understanding the cognitive patterns associated with information processing of social media. While we have made certain discoveries, this project has really just laid the initial ground work for this research stream. Students have been instrumental in creating experimental instruments, conducting literature reviews, designing experiments, and collecting data. We have presented these ideas at some of …

Understanding The Causes And Consequences Of The Impostor Phenomenon, Jeffrey Bednar

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The MEG grant I was awarded was used to fund the work of several undergraduate and graduate students as we sought to present academic research and generate academic research articles for publication in various journals. This included research we have been conducting related to the “Impostor Syndrome”, where some high-achieving individuals fail to internalize their accomplishments and experience feelings of perceived fraudulence (Clance & Imes, 1978).

Validating Market Segmentation Solutions, Marc Dotson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I set out to apply the MEG Grant to a project entitled “Validating Market Segmentation Solutions.” Early on in the process, it became clear that, while this project was and still is of managerial importance, I could do more academically relevant project work with more students if I were to switch gears to a number of other projects. Instead of the single project, the grant has been used over the past two years to help fund mentoring activities with students on the following projects:

Neurosecurity: Comprehending Security Messages, Zachary Vance, Bonnie Anderson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The comprehension of security messages can be a difficult task to decipher, as comprehension works through a series of stages. The four major steps in comprehension are attention, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics, as outlined by figure 1 below. Through the use of eye-tracking, we were able to focus on parts of security messages that inhibited understanding and make changes to ensure users were following through each step of comprehension and therefore making wise security decisions. Eye-tracking proved to be an excellent tool for comprehension as the data gives immediate measures of attention, with difficult words or phrases being stared at …

The Financing Of Transportation Firms Using Rail, Truck, Air And Ship To Test Capital Structure Theories, David Wilson, James Brau

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Our project sought to test traditional theories of capital structure (e.g., Ang & Peterson, 1986, Rajan & Zingales, 1995, Titman, & Wessels, 1988 DeAngelo & Masulis,1980, Leland, 1994, and Modigliani & Miller, 1958) through the analysis of a naturally occurring experiment produced among various transportation industry sectors (i.e. rail, truck, air, ship). The transportation industry is novel because the four types of transportation methods all have the same objective – to move product from one place to the other (Carter, Rogers, & Choi, 2015, and Gelsomino, Mangiaracina, Perego, & Tumino, 2016) – while each sector faces unique governmental regulation. Their …

Meta-Analytic Investigation Of Physical Ability Subgroup Differences Based On Age And Race, Cody Reeves

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The academic objectives are still in the process of being met as the research effort is ongoing. We had hoped to have an academic manuscript submitted during the Fall 2018 semester, however this proved impossible as the project timeline was set back due to the mental health needs of a participating student research assistant and the evacuation of an academic collaborator at Pepperdine University (due to the Woolsey Fire). Fortunately, we have made strong progress on the project and it is anticipated that a final manuscript will be ready for submission sometime during the Winter 2019 semester. That said, early …

Deferred Taxes And Cash Flow Predictability, Kaleb Norwald, Jake Thornock

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Companies are sometimes required to pay taxes on events that have not yet occurred. This tax is called a deferred tax asset or DTA. These companies will receive a refund on this special type of tax, but the refund won’t be dispersed until years later. (Sometimes, this can take up to twenty years.) The slow reimbursement of a tax refund inhibits a company’s ability to grow, hire, and innovate as it unnecessarily constrains cash flow. Additionally, since this type of tax can be 7-13% of annual operating profits, the refunds are often very sizeable amounts.

The reimbursement process can be …

Measuring Compassion In The Workforce, Haley Kirk, Jeffrey Jenkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My ORCA project is designed to measure a person’s level of compassion using mouse-cursor tracking. The field of compassion is relatively untouched in the world of research, and I wanted to be one of the first to effectively measure compassion. I also wanted this measurement to be easily implemented into the workforce. To achieve this goal, I designed two activities. The first activity is a game that is designed to gauge a person’s level of compassion. The second activity uses mouse-tracking technology to measure compassion in an even more accurate fashion. Using these two activities, my mentor and I created …

Calling On Trial: Anticipated Calling Among Law School Students, Bradley Goronson, Jeffery Thompson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Human beings spend a large proportion of their time working. What one does for work will end up having a huge influence throughout their life. Given that this is the case, sociologists and psychologists have conducted research on the ways in which individuals attach meaning to their work. Within this stream of research, scholars have studied the experience of work as a deeply meaningful combination of using one’s passions and talents to help others-work as a calling. This research has typically been concerned with callings as work one is currently engaged in. A noteworthy paper by Kira Schabram and Sally …

Book Review When: The Scientific Secrets Of Perfect Timing, Nick Porter

Marriott Student Review

N/A - Book review

Book Review: Seeds Of Greatness By Denis Waitley, Jennifer Maynard

Marriott Student Review

Book review of Seeds of Greatness by Denis Waitley, personal anecdotes and summaries of research on the secrets to success in life and in the business world.

Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid The Traps, Create Unity, And Reap Big Results, Ryan Stenquist

Marriott Student Review

From the federal government to long-standing investment banks to small startups, every organization needs sensible and effective collaboration. Morten Hansen’s book, published by the Harvard Business Review Press, offers great frameworks for understanding what disciplined collaboration looks like and how our organizations are performing now.

Book Review: The Innovator's Method, Jennifer Ann Goldsberry

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.

Take The Busy Out Of Business, Sarah Romney

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.

The Genius Of Good Questions, Matthew Erickson

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.

Beginning Of The New Smartphone Era, Braden Terry

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.