A Novel Approach To Legacy Donations With Long-Term Benefits Supported By Numerical Illustrations, Daniel Solow, Robin Symes

Faculty Scholarship

Philanthropic donors face challenges in matching the causes to which they donate, the time horizon—and thus impact—of their donations, and the charitable vehicles they choose for making contributions. Wealthier donors may elect to create their own foundations and customize their charitable support. Less wealthy donors have limited choices: they may contribute to a nonprofit's current operations or to existing nonprofit endowments. We present a novel approach for making charitable donations, blending aspects of each of these strategies. Our approach has potential long-term financial benefits, allows donors to control their charitable donations in a convenient and easy-to-implement manner, can be established …

Gauging The Effect Of Buyer Vs. Seller Initiation Of Customer Value Creation On Buyer Loyalty In Large B2b Sales Relationships, George Talbert, Earl D. Honeycutt Jr., Subhashish Samaddar

Engaged Management ReView

This study addresses two central questions: Is it important to determine whether the salesperson or the buyer initiates value creation in large business-to-business (B2B) selling environments? Furthermore, does the mode of initiation – buyer or seller – later influence customer attitudes toward the sales interaction? Value creation is necessary for large B2B sales situations because customized solutions often are required to meet customer needs. This empirical study compares buyer and seller initiators of value creation in B2B dealings and analyzes which actor most positively affects customer perceptions. In a study of 142 senior-level managers at buyer organizations

who participated in …

Nonprofit Fundraising And Social Identity, Jeff Gold

Engaged Management ReView

The purpose of this topic paper is to determine whether nonprofits can increase their fundraising capabilities by better managing their donors’ social identities. The nonprofit sector in the United States generated nearly $1.9 trillion in gross output, is estimated to contribute 5.6% toward the country’s $25.5 trillion in gross domestic product (GDP), and contributes immeasurable benefits to society. The industry continues to face challenges as the demand for services has increased and fundraising difficulties persist. This article analyzes peer-reviewed articles focused on nonprofit fundraising using a systematic approach. My findings suggest that one of the keys to effective nonprofit fundraising …

Increasing Software As A Service (Saas) Customer Retention: Do Intangible Factors Matter?, Jim Schleckser

Engaged Management ReView

This topic paper examines whether intangible customer relationship factors drive customer retention for a subscription-based software business. My analysis is based on a review of peer-reviewed articles that focus on renewal intent for subscription-based offerings. Subscription-based offers can include a range of products, from enterprise software to IT support to streaming video services. My findings indicate that intangible relationship factors are essential to the renewal intent of subscription-based software. Intangible relationship factors are not directly related to the product but do affect relationship quality, including social factors like trust and technical aspects like knowledge transfer. A company focused on customer …

Public-Private Partnership (P3) Success: Critical Success Factors For Local Government Services And Infrastructure Delivery, Antonio M. Lopez, George M. Marakas

Engaged Management ReView

The Public-Private Partnership (P3) approach is a viable option to address the slow growth and burgeoning need to deliver infrastructure projects and services by state and local governments. This study focuses on identifying critical success factors (CSF) that influence the success of P3s for local government service and infrastructure delivery. A framework is presented for integrating relationship and project management CSFs identified from previous literature into P3s. In addition, public agency entrepreneurial orientation is introduced as a potential CSF – a focus that has been absent in previous P3 CSF literature. To empirically assess the influence of these CSFs on …

Urban Expansion Of Energiewende In Germany: A Systematic Bibliometric Analysis And Literature Study, Peter Yang

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Despite Germany’s world leadership of Energiewende, there have been mounting challenges, such as the slowdown of German renewable energy growth since 2017, when the Merkel administration dramatically changed the German renewable energy promotion policy from feed-in tariffs to competitive auctions. These challenges pose important research questions about whether and how an emerging urban expansion of Energiewende can serve as a vital solution to counteract the challenges to the energy transition. Answering these research questions provides a unique opportunity to explore the academic and historic foundations of the energy transition and its urban expansion, the emerging events that exemplify urban …

Mediating Role Of Leadership-Led Change In Adoption Of Waste-To-Energy In Nigeria, Jahan Moghadam, Karen Loch, Kamran Khan Niazi

Engaged Management ReView

The use of renewable energy has increased in the past several years. Innovative forms of sustainable alternative energy production, such as solar and wind, are well-recognized energy sources. This paper reviews waste-to-energy (WtE), an innovative and evolving form of renewable energy, and its possible adoption in Nigeria to address this nation’s energy crisis and pollution problem. The theoretical framework of this paper draws from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the leadership-led change framework to consider the role of leaders and their influence to adopt WtE. Four factors act as antecedents to the formation of attitudes and subjective norms …

An Assessment Of Requirements In Investments, New Technologies, And Infrastructures To Achieve The Sdgs, Peter Yang

Faculty Scholarship

Background: The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires much planning and the provision of resources, especially regarding the necessary investments, technologies and infrastructures needed. Yet, it is presently unclear how available these elements are, what gaps exist, what changes have taken place in terms of their availability since the adoption of the SDGs and what their requirements will be in the future. The knowledge gap has become even more concerning because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a bibliometric analysis, an assessment of the global progress of SDG implementation and requirements, identifying challenges through the development …

Betting On Talent: Examining The Relationship Between Employee Retention And Onboarding Programs, Jonna B. Blount

Engaged Management ReView

The expectations of employees in the United States continue to evolve as generational shifts occur in the workforce. The already raging war for talent has been fueled by the 2020 pandemic, which introduced new ways to work and different types of work opportunities. As a result, employees are re-evaluating their options and seeking ways to extract more value from their professional lives. In these circumstances, employee retention is a competitive advantage, and companies must consider how to retain their most desirable talent. Research in the organizational behavior domain shows that when employees hold values like those of their employing organization, …

Improving Feedforward Controls To Improve Npd Portfolio Performance – An Empirical Study, Mark H. Baker, Mike Bourne

Engaged Management ReView

Managers making crucial project selections in large, fast-changing project portfolios face the challenge of balancing the tension between control (performance) and creativity (experimentation/innovation). To better manage this challenge and to improve performance, some practitioners and scholars have considered the application of more sophisticated feedforward controls in new product development portfolio project selections. However, empirical studies of changes in the sophistication of such controls and of their influence on performance are lacking. We use an engaged scholarship approach and an action research methodology in a large international organization with multiple business units to study the post-intervention changes in applied controls and …

The Influence Of Regulatory Oversight On Environmental, Social, And Governance Ratings, John F. Torpey

Engaged Management ReView

Firm performance in the specific areas of environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) has become an important criterion that investors use in determining a firm’s value. This empirical investigation, based on stakeholder theory examines the relationship between regulatory oversight and third-party ESG ratings. Our research methodology involved quantitative, observational, and retrospective analyses. The study population consisted of 471 firms from two heavily regulated industry sectors—the utility and financial sectors—and from two less regulated sectors—the information technology and consumer discretionary sectors. We compiled the ESG ratings for the firms from two independent rating services. The quantitative evaluation included multiple …

Creating Positive Impact: The Power Of Greater Purpose And Consciousness Of Connectedness, Joseph Leah, Chris Laszlo

Engaged Management ReView

As the idea of business as a positive force in society continues to grow, we ask: Under what conditions do business leaders transform their companies into organizations that create positive value for all stakeholders, generate above-average economic returns, and serve personal well-being, community health, a fair and inclusive society, and a thriving natural environment?

This study aims to explore the underlying factors and motivations of business as a force for good, and to identify practical guidance for business leaders wishing to create a positive impact through their organizations. Our prior research led us to hypothesize that a leader’s mindset—or consciousness—is …

Motivating Increased Sales: Variable Or Fixed Compensation Structure?, Kevin Chalk

Engaged Management ReView

This critically appraised topic (CAT) examines the question of whether a variable compensation structure helps motivate increased sales more than a fixed compensation structure. The analysis is based on peer reviewed articles focused on compensation and incentive structures and performance measurement. The findings suggest that variable compensation can increase sales performance, but only to a certain degree. A proper incentive structure would be a combination of both variable and fixed components.

Towards A Pedagogy Of Connection: A Critical View Of Being Relational In Listening, Jessi Hinz, John Paul Stephens, Ellen Van Oosten

Faculty Scholarship

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) perspectives define interpersonal work experiences such as positive work relationships and high-quality connections by the mutual growth and empowerment experienced by relationship or connection partners. Listening has been implicated as a key mechanism for building such positive interpersonal work experiences, but it is unclear how listening spurs on mutual, rather than one-sided growth, in relationship and connection partners. In this paper, we argue that management education currently focuses on the intrapersonal capability of listeners to execute key verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Less emphasis is placed on the mutual experience co-created between speaker and listener and, thus, …

Learning Through Dialogue During Intelligence Assessments: A Translation Of Theory Into Practice, Adrian Wolfberg, Nancy M. Dixon

Engaged Management ReView

We translate a theory into the practice of intelligence assessments. Following Karl Weick’s (1993) retrospective approach, the translation relies on previously published evaluations of intelligence assessment practices. Intelligence assessments are used in organizations to inform leaders of threats and opportunities. The theory we apply describes how an intelligence analyst learns through dialogue during the practice of conducting an intelligence assessment, and it consists of four learning archetypes: cooperative, focused, survival, and reflective. The theory is based on the differential effects on learning caused by the interaction between information overload and equivocality. We use the role of dialogue in the theory …

How To Turn Around A Failing Erp Implementation: Project Management Routines As Boundary Objects, Douglas A. Battleson, Lars Mathiassen

Engaged Management ReView

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are very challenging and expensive to implement and past research recognizes that these projects continue to suffer from high failure rates. While the factors that contribute to these failures have been extensively examined, we know little about how to turn failing projects around. In response, this research presents a study of a failing ERP implementation project that was successfully turned around over a twelve-month period. Adapting theory of sensemaking through boundary objects, we explain how a new project manager helped the team members share their individual perspectives on the problematic situation and together develop new …

How The Show Goes On: Using The Aesthetic Experience Of Collective Performance To Adapt While Coordinating, John Paul Stephens

Faculty Scholarship

Coordinating in action groups consists of continuously adapting behaviors in response to fluctuating conditions, ideally with limited disruption to a group’s collective performance. Through an 18-month ethnography of how members of a community choir maintained beautiful, ongoing performance, I explored how they continuously adapted their coordinating, starting when they felt that their collective performance was fragmented or falling apart. The process model I developed shows that this aesthetic experience—the sense of fragmentation based on inputs from the bodily senses—leads to emotional triggering, meaning group members’ emotions prompt changes in their attention and behavior. They then distribute their attention in new …

Critically Appraised Topic (Cat): Building A Library Of Validated Practices., Jahan Moghadam, Samuel W. Yates, Richard L. Baskerville

Engaged Management ReView

Abstract

We review the critically appraised topic (CAT) as an evidence-based tool in management research and provide original examples for consideration. The CAT is a highly condensed form of systematic literature review, collecting study findings to address a specific practice-oriented research question. Such questions often investigate the effectiveness of a known intervention. In addition, a CAT critiques the best evidence available by considering the rigor and validity of relevant published research. CATs consolidate investigations of research relevant to specific, practical treatments in the field. We include two different CAT examples from unique business settings to illustrate the fundamental elements and …

Pragmatic Rigor: Principles And Criteria For Conducting And Evaluating Practitioner Scholarship, Daniel Robey, Wallace T.F Taylor, Louis J. Grabowski

Engaged Management ReView

Practitioner scholarship is a promising avenue for addressing the gap between academic research and practice. To advance the objective of publishing the findings of practitioner scholarship, we develop the concept of pragmatic rigor, which is intended to complement but not replace scientific rigor. We propose four principles of pragmatic rigor: relevance, actionability, comprehensibility, and ethical reasoning. For each principle, we develop associated criteria for conducting and evaluating practical research. Pragmatic principles are relevant to the research process, from choice of topic to final evaluation by journal reviewers. We believe that applying these principles can advance the practical value of studies …

Problem-Solving In Complex Settings: Techniques For Crossing Organizational Boundaries, Adrian Wolfberg

Engaged Management ReView

Solving problems in complex organizations requires managers to successfully navigate organizational boundaries. Yet, crossing boundaries can be an extremely difficult endeavor that requires sophisticated and multifaceted skills and behaviors. In this paper, we introduce boundary permeability to expand on the available boundary crossing techniques identified by Carlile (2004). Acknowledging the messiness in organizational life, we propose a set of techniques requiring that managers consider the multiplicity of boundary conditions and, in many cases, use multiple techniques simultaneously. We describe an innovative, real-world, problem-solving program within the U.S. Department of Defense to demonstrate the practical application of the proposed techniques and …

The Observer Effect And U.S. Accounting Rules, Thomas A. King

Engaged Management ReView

This inductive study evaluates how accounting rules promulgated by U.S. standard setters evolved over a century. Archival data viewed through the lens of the observer effect -- where the act of observation influences the subject -- reveals long-term patterns of behavior. Interaction of rule makers and followers suggests three generalizations: rule sets grow, codification accelerates rule set growth, and interaction between regulators and those who are regulated confounds predictions about possible consequences of new rules. In other words, this system has never reached equilibrium despite one hundred years of effort to constrain behavior. As unchecked rule growth risks costly compliance …

Experiential Organizing: Pursuing Relational And Bureaucratic Goals Through Symbolically And Experientially Oriented Work, Keimei Sugiyama, John Paul Stephens

Faculty Scholarship

Current scholarship on organizational practices that foster a sense of care and collaboration in work relationships has yet to fully account for the potential misalignment between the goals of a given practice and how it is actually experienced. To address this issue, we develop a theoretical framework of experiential organizing, which we define as an iterative process through which positive relational and bureaucratic goals of a practice are pursued via symbolically and experientially oriented work. We offer theory to explain how organizations move through the experiential organizing process, what different types of work are required, and how the different parts …

The Impact Of Executive Doctoral Programs On Management Practice, Morgan Bulger, Kalle Lyytinen, Paul Salipante

Engaged Management ReView

Although the prevalence of Executive Doctoral Programs (EDPs) is increasing, little is known about their influence on management practice. To support further research and debate into this important area, this essay presents a dynamic model of EDP impact and discusses how the model can help reorient current knowledge on practitioner–scholar behaviors and careers. The model identifies six dimensions of EDPs’ personal impact: 1) cognitive development, 2) academic contribution, 3) practical impact, 4) career mobility, 5) identity transformation, and 6) community belonging. In addition, it identifies eight activities that represent EDPs’ practical impact: 1) direct management application, 2) teaching or educational …

Engaged Participant Observation: An Integrative Approach To Qualitative Field Research For Practitioner-Scholars, Daniel Robey, Wallace T.F Taylor

Engaged Management ReView

Abstract

Participant observation is an appropriate research method for engaged practitioner-scholars seeking in-depth insights available from qualitative field research. Conventional approaches to participant observation include ethnography and action research. However, conventional approaches were originally developed with the assumption that the roles of practitioner and scholar are separate. We propose a new approach, engaged participant observation, which recognizes the integration of research and practice roles. We illustrate the application of engaged participant observation, and its special demands, through a completed executive doctoral dissertation conducted by second author and supervised by the first author. We address the specific tensions and demands …

Dynamic Capabilities In Small Service Firms, Gabriel Beltran, Balasubramaniam Ramesh

Engaged Management ReView

ABSTRACT

In constantly shifting service environments managers face the challenge to renew, modify, and reconfigure their firm’s service offerings as to effectively respond to industry turbulence. Dynamic capabilities have been proposed as a primary means by which firms reconfigure their operational processes to generate such new service offerings. While the role of dynamic capabilities in large organizations has been extensively investigated, their role in small organizations has not received much attention. We explore how dynamic capabilities manifest in small service firms and how they use IT capabilities to achieve these capabilities. Using a multi-site case study in four small service …

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: An Account Of The Korean Experience, Wallace T.F Taylor

Engaged Management ReView

This research account reports conclusions from a small group of interviews done with Korean-American entrepreneurs located in three ethnic enclaves near Atlanta, GA. The purpose of this research is to further knowledge in immigrant entrepreneurship. Methodology comprised seven one-hour interviews conducted with first generation business owners (one male and six female) in three enclaves in Atlanta. The research used qualitative design and focused on answering three important questions: How do Korean entrepreneurs discover and exploit opportunities to develop business, how does this sample describe their experiences in the studied enclaves, and how might espoused cultural traits and business skills affect …

The Complexity In The Discrepancy: A Holistic View Of The Electricity Supply And Demand Discrepancy In Nigeria, Olufunso O. Olulafe

Student Scholarship

The gap between electricity supply and demand, in Nigeria, is not decreasing. To gain more insight into the phenomenon, we sought to take a holistic approach at analysis and learn about the relationship between dimensions of investment, policy, entrepreneurial orientation innovation, and the electricity situation in Nigeria. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 30 individuals, who have experience in Nigeria. The interviewees also have sound perspectives on key stakeholders in the electricity ecosystem. Building on this foundation, we make the case that the dimension of national character, and its second order constructs has a relationship with the previous dimensions, in …

Emergence And Growth Of The Medical Device Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Minnesota, Brian Abraham

Student Scholarship

Different geographic regions in the United States have experienced varying degrees of entrepreneurial activity that give rise, maturity and in many cases declines in regional industry vertical strengths. We investigated the medical device industry in Minnesota to explain how entrepreneurial or new venture communities emerge, operate and perform. Absorptive capacity, social network theory, agent-network theory and technology diffusion are clearly evident phenomena observed. We used a qualitative, grounded theory methodology to interview 20 experts with knowledge of the ecosystem studied. We found significant development impediments created with the emergence of policy that has slowed technology commercialization as the regional medical …

Beyond The Grade: Bonding Faculty Behaviors Predicting Community College Student Commitment To Learning, Lucia D. Heddleson

Student Scholarship

This study investigated factors influencing community college student academic retention\, specifically a student’s commitment to learn. Data was obtained from two local community colleges\, and the study’s proposed model was evaluated using structural equation modelling. Student Identity Capital and Relational Climate functioned as mediating factors influencing academic retention as they relate to supportive faculty behaviors. Direct effects of supportive bonding faculty behaviors on academic retention were also considered. Results supported mediation from student identity capital to academic retention\, and relational climate was found to be insignificant. Finally\, supportive faculty behaviors proved to be a significant factor overall in the evaluation …

Ministries Of Catholic Sisters In The Diocese Of Cleveland: Assessing Capacity And Opportunity In A Period Of Transition, Robert L. Fischer, Rong Bai

Faculty Scholarship

Catholic sisters have long played a vital role in addressing the needs of the poor, neglected, and vulnerable members of society. In northeast Ohio, sisters have been instrumental in the arenas of education, healthcare, social service, and advocacy. This research builds on research conducted in 2009 on the characteristics of the ministries of Catholic sisters. Using a survey approach, responses were collected from 358 Catholic Sisters in 12 religious orders, approximately 60 percent of the sisters living in the Diocese of Cleveland. The study explores sisters' current ministries (work and service), the plans for their ministries to continue, and their …