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Full-Text Articles in Business

Balancing The Dynamic Tension Between Traditional Nonprofit Management And Social Entrepreneurship, Michael G. Stull May 2003

Balancing The Dynamic Tension Between Traditional Nonprofit Management And Social Entrepreneurship, Michael G. Stull

Student Scholarship

With the challenges facing the nonprofit sector in the United States--increasing competition, decreased funding sources, and rising demand for services--nonprofit organizations must make significant adaptations to continue playing an effective role in society. One of those adaptations--social entrepreneurship--has emerged as a creative response to the new demands facing nonprofits. This ethnographic study of a nonprofit family services organization investigated how both traditional and social entrepreneurship approaches were used and how the dynamic tension between these differing approaches is balanced. The data presented suggest that traditional management and social entrepreneurship approaches can be blended through a "continuum of practice," and the …

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A Reflection Of Trust: Analyzing The Role Of Customers And Sales Manager On Salesperson Trust-Building Behaviors, Daniel Cohen May 2003

A Reflection Of Trust: Analyzing The Role Of Customers And Sales Manager On Salesperson Trust-Building Behaviors, Daniel Cohen

Student Scholarship

Trust has received a great deal of attention in the marketing literature over the past ten years especially in regard to relationship marketing. In fact, “the development and maintenance of marketing relationships has been the focus of extensive conceptual and empirical work, and trust has been established as a key component in the development of buyer-seller relationships” (Brashear, Boles, Bellenger & Brooks, 2003, p.189). Previous studies, however, have generally focused on how salespeople build trust with customers (Doney & Cannon, 1997; Ganesan, 1994) without considering other components of the relationship such as the behaviors of customers engaged in long-term sales …

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Complex Unfamiliar Entries In The Airport Context, Bill Brunger May 2003

Complex Unfamiliar Entries In The Airport Context, Bill Brunger

Student Scholarship

Airport managers tend to view airport efficiency through the lens of their own experience based on measurements of travelers' interactions with the airline after the traveler has entered the airport process. They ignore the times when the traveler is not empirically measurable, for example, the period between arrival at the airport and checks-in with the airline, and therefore miss important insight into how travelers cope with uncertainty and anxiety of the airport experience. In this paper, the author, an Airline Executive, suggests that ethnographic studies based on the techniques of rich observation, note-taking, coding, and inductive analysis will be a …

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Out Of The Mouths Of Leaders...A Comparative Study Of Nonprofit And For-Profit Leadership Approaches As Manifested In Annual Management Letters, Susan Mctiernan Gillen May 2003

Out Of The Mouths Of Leaders...A Comparative Study Of Nonprofit And For-Profit Leadership Approaches As Manifested In Annual Management Letters, Susan Mctiernan Gillen

Student Scholarship

Understanding the varied approaches to leadership remains an ongoing challenge, especially as it relates to different sorts of organizations. Of particular interest are the specific considerations to which leaders pay attention. The managment letter, contained in the annual reports of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, reveal the nature of many of these considerations. This paper examines the management letters contained in the annual reports of for-profit and nonprofit organizations in order to discern the major differences and similarities between the approaches for for-profit and nonprofit leaders. Through this research a number of themes emerge that lead to general conclusions regarding …

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Inter-Cultural Service Encounters: The Mechanism Underlying The Effect Of Cultural Distance On Customer Service Satisfaction, C. Fritz Reichert Apr 2003

Inter-Cultural Service Encounters: The Mechanism Underlying The Effect Of Cultural Distance On Customer Service Satisfaction, C. Fritz Reichert

Student Scholarship

In our global economy where companies are often required to serve customers of many different cultures, there is a need to understand how culture affects service satisfaction. In this paper the author presents a model and hypotheses for understanding the mechanism underlying the effect of cultural distance between the customer and the service provider on service satisfaction when a service failure is encountered. The model synthesizes the type of service failure, the context in which the service is provided, the customer's cultural disposition, and the customer's attribution processes. The model and hypotheses are tested using a quasiexperimental, web-based research design …

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Emotional Intelligence Competencies In Physician Leaders: An Exploratory Study, Michael J. Deegan Jan 2003

Emotional Intelligence Competencies In Physician Leaders: An Exploratory Study, Michael J. Deegan

Student Scholarship

A theory of behavioral competencies associated with emotional intelligence that influence job performance, was tested in physicians who hold leadership positions in their organization. An emotional intelligence competency ( EIC ) survey ( the ECI-2 ) that measured eighteen competencies distributed among four cluster groups ( self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship management ) was administered to physician leaders and their supervisors, peers and direct reports. The resulting 360 degree assessment permitted a comparison of the physician leaders self assessment scores with one another and those working closely with them. In addition, independent objective and subjective measures of physician …

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Painting The Canvas Of Silence: Vision Enriched Through Voice, Karie Willyerd Oct 2002

Painting The Canvas Of Silence: Vision Enriched Through Voice, Karie Willyerd

Student Scholarship

“Leaders are like conductors.” Peruse a half dozen management journals, and it is likely that the analogy “leaders are like conductors” will show up at least once, frequently citing the same Peter Drucker quote. Correspondingly, music journals are as likely to proclaim “conductors are like great leaders” (Armstrong, 1996). As intuitively true as this may seem, little research has been done to study the leadership characteristics of conductors. Instead, the study of conductors has focused primarily on their artistic abilities. This study was aimed at filling that gap. Most conductors perform globally, and thus the analogy of conductor to leader …

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How Nonprofit Organizations Develop And Leverage Social Capital, Nancy K. King Aug 2002

How Nonprofit Organizations Develop And Leverage Social Capital, Nancy K. King

Student Scholarship

Acquiring sufficient resources is a continual struggle for many nonprofit organizations. "Nonprofit organizations that have often needed to accomplish the ir mission with limited resources find themselves stretched to the breaking point," (Peter Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, 2001). The struggle is not limited to financial resources, but includes human resources--board, staff, and volunteer--as well. The concept of social capital may be an important one for nonprofit managers to understand and apply as a means of addressing this problem. Social capital encompasses building networks of relationships, which enhance cooperation, trust, shared vision and resource exchange in creating organizational value (Tsai …

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Vojvodina, Serbia: Cornerstone Of Democratization And Multi-Ethnic Collaboration, John N. Lauer Jul 2002

Vojvodina, Serbia: Cornerstone Of Democratization And Multi-Ethnic Collaboration, John N. Lauer

Student Scholarship

On a cool sunny afternoon in February 2002, accompanied by my wife and an interpreter-guide, I drove south from Budapest toward the southern town of Szeged and the border with Serbia just beyond. While driving, I pondered what I would see and discover in Vojvodina, the former autonomous and still northern province of Serbia, and the place I had chosen to do fieldwork for my ethnographic research project. My research purpose was to study multiethnic cooperation within the context of Vojvodina autonomy in order to understand the circumstances of how and why such collaborative relationships between different ethnic groups work. …

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Between Labor And Art: Service Industry Craftsmanship Defined, Bernard John Brunsman Jul 2002

Between Labor And Art: Service Industry Craftsmanship Defined, Bernard John Brunsman

Student Scholarship

This paper presents, in ethnographic fashion, observations of service industry craftsmanship in a familiar setting--a barbershop. It then relates these observations to a definition of service industry craftsmanship that is largely constructed from the works of Helms, Becker, and Barley and Orr. The meaning of service industry craftsmanship is then used to highlight implications of this concept to the worlds of practice and scholarship.

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An Investigation Of The Direct And Ripple Effect Of An Environmental Jolt On The Airline Industry, Leonard Lane May 2002

An Investigation Of The Direct And Ripple Effect Of An Environmental Jolt On The Airline Industry, Leonard Lane

Student Scholarship

The events of September 11, 2001 significantly affected the operations of the U.S. domestic airline industry. The unprecedented two and one-half day, government mandated shut-down of the airline industry was followed by individual company actions that varied from large decreases in their operational capacity to little or no change. This unstable environment provided a unique opportunity to conduct an exploratory study to address the question of how firms and their customers in the airline industry reacted to the direct and ripple effect of an external environmental jolt that affected the entire industry and what accounted for the different firm responses …

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The Nonprofit Board Of Trustees: Maximizing Its Effectiveness In A Brave New World, Joe Mandato May 2002

The Nonprofit Board Of Trustees: Maximizing Its Effectiveness In A Brave New World, Joe Mandato

Student Scholarship

This is a study of the differing perspectives of business-oriented board members and a nonprofit CEO, providing insight into their relationships and into board governance practices. The study illuminates reasons why boards and CEOs find it difficult to fully use and leverage their joint skills. Nonprofit organizations are facing increased pressure and new challenges. They must contend with a shrinking resource base, greater competition for donor dollars and a donor market focused on the events of 9/11. Additionally, nonprofits are being asked to deliver more services, with fewer resources, to meet increased need. Adding to this mix is a generation …

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A Comparison Of The Network Strategies Of Successful Entrepreneurial And Professional Women, Barbara Mistick, Karie Willyerd May 2002

A Comparison Of The Network Strategies Of Successful Entrepreneurial And Professional Women, Barbara Mistick, Karie Willyerd

Student Scholarship

This research is part of a larger exploratory study of successful women and how they have developed and used their personal networks. Specifically in this paper, we are interested in understanding the differences between network composition and network strategies used by women entrepreneurs and women professionals. The focus herein is on the business/professional and social/friendship networks of successful women. We conceptualize that the personal network characteristics of women entrepreneurs are different from those of professional women and suggest that by understanding the similarities and difference in the their personal networks this study will assist women in developing practical, appropriate personalized …

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Performance And Commitment Of Practitioner/Volunteer Leader Partnerships, Donald Zeilstra May 2002

Performance And Commitment Of Practitioner/Volunteer Leader Partnerships, Donald Zeilstra

Student Scholarship

A comparative case study design was used to study the effects of practitioner and volunteer leader interactions on performance and commitment in six capital fundraising campaigns of nonprofit organizations. Variation was found among the cases in the extent to which the interaction of the pairs were characterized by reciprocal relationships, and the scope and intensity of their learning orientation. As a feasibility test, the proposal that this variation would be positively associated with differences in performance and commitment was supported. As an exploratory study, insights about potential causal relationships were gained which may be tested in future research.

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Large Fries, Two Apples Pies: Rotational Leadership - An Ethnographic Investigation Into The Assimilation Of Corporate Values, A. Damos Solaru May 2002

Large Fries, Two Apples Pies: Rotational Leadership - An Ethnographic Investigation Into The Assimilation Of Corporate Values, A. Damos Solaru

Student Scholarship

The Problem: State and Federal welfare reform programs have had the effect of increasing the size of the work force by reducing the availability of benefits available to the long-term unemployed. Coming at a time when unemployment fell to record low levels, all new entrants to the work force were greeted with a large array of opportunities. For the previously unemployed welfare recipient, the experience of moving into the work force has not been easy. Unlike better-educated new entrants into the work force, former welfare recipients have lived in a society essentially outside of the mainstream. By developing outside of …

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Newtown Stationary: Getting Communities Back Into The Economic Development Game, Charles T. Moses May 2002

Newtown Stationary: Getting Communities Back Into The Economic Development Game, Charles T. Moses

Student Scholarship

Today's inner cities can be places in which entrepreneurs, availing themselves of vertical and horizontal networks of business and community interests, can prosper. Government interventions such as the empowerment zone initiatives have generally not been successful in developing the indigenous entrepreneurial base in the inner city. Using the case of a single entrepreneur, this study explores alternative networking, inner city economics and the problem of failed statist policies as regards inner city economic development. It continues existing work aimed at deconstructing narratives that hold that inner cities lack effective reciprocal networks that would aid in economic development and details the …

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Putting Socks On An Octopus: A Qualitative Understanding Of The Transformation To Customer Relationship Management, Patricia A. Sahm May 2002

Putting Socks On An Octopus: A Qualitative Understanding Of The Transformation To Customer Relationship Management, Patricia A. Sahm

Student Scholarship

The art of business underwent an upheaval in the last decade as new technologies met better-informed customers. One response to this new business environment can be seen in a recent repositioning from business models focused on products to ones based in customer centric actions. By the mid-1990s, this thinking led to the concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and to the explosive growth of CRM software and consulting services providers. After six to eight years of CRM implementations the results remain mixed with about 60-70% considered failures. What went wrong and how can it go right? Practitioners of CRM, whether …

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See Jane And Samantha Lead: An Ethnography Of A Chair/Chief Executive Pair In A Nonprofit Organization, J. Bart Morrison May 2002

See Jane And Samantha Lead: An Ethnography Of A Chair/Chief Executive Pair In A Nonprofit Organization, J. Bart Morrison

Student Scholarship

This ethnography is about how nonprofit governance was achieved at one particular nonprofit agency, but it is not a how-to report or a report that explains specific factors that influence the effectiveness of nonprofit boards. Much of the conventional literature on the subject of nonprofit governance presents expert-based prescriptions of best practices. In contrast, this report is a rich description drawn from the social contruction of reality paradigm and derived from direct, intimate interaction over an extended period in a single organization. A basic narrative of the protagonists' experiences presented from their perspective provides a framework for multi-layered analysis. On …

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Study Of Direct Internet Selling By Airlines In The U.S. Air Travel Distribution Industry, Sowmyan Raman May 2002

Study Of Direct Internet Selling By Airlines In The U.S. Air Travel Distribution Industry, Sowmyan Raman

Student Scholarship

The U.S. airline industry plays a very vital role in the national economy and defense. Even though the demand in this industry has been doubling every 8 to 10 years, the airline industry as a whole has seldom made any serious money during regulated or deregulated era. There is a strong downward trend in fare levels and airline yield. The downward pressure on yields makes cost reduction a major priority for all airlines. In the short and medium terms, equipment and fuel costs are beyond their control. Their inability to control the labor costs has pushed the airlines to focus …

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"Like Visions In My Head: Understanding The Formulation Of Student Perceptions Of The Value Of The Liberal Arts Experience, And The Impact Of This Process On College Choice, Margaret L. Drugovich May 2002

"Like Visions In My Head: Understanding The Formulation Of Student Perceptions Of The Value Of The Liberal Arts Experience, And The Impact Of This Process On College Choice, Margaret L. Drugovich

Student Scholarship

Tuition-dependent, private postsecondary institutions need a continuous and predictable stream of students to assure their fiscal viability. Liberal arts colleges, like all postsecondary education institutions, are vying for student s in an increasingly competitive marketplace. As premium price leaders, many liberal arts institutions have been forced to make deep cuts to their 'sticker price' in the form of tuition discounts in order to compete with one another as well as with state institutions that increasingly espouse their ability to simulate the small college experience. However, discounting, though perhaps popular and even necessary, cannot be a long-term solution. According to Lovett, …

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The Connected Celebrity And Nonprofit Advertising, Robert T. Wheeler May 2002

The Connected Celebrity And Nonprofit Advertising, Robert T. Wheeler

Student Scholarship

This study draws on two different inquiry methologies to explore the issue of advertising effectiveness of celebrity endorsers in a nonprofit setting. In Chapter 2 the author develops a framework that incorporates connection (congruence), source credibility, involvement, and gender as key elements in understanding the connection between celebrity endorsers and nonprofit organizations, and its impact on advertising effectiveness. In a controlled experiment the proposed model is tested using data collected in 12 sessions at two west coast universities (N=398). The results of this quantitative study support the principal model that posits a realtionship between connection, source credibility, and intention to …

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The "Shop" Around The Corner: How Do Leadership Attitudes Effect An Organization? An Ethnographic Study, Barbara Clemenson May 2002

The "Shop" Around The Corner: How Do Leadership Attitudes Effect An Organization? An Ethnographic Study, Barbara Clemenson

Student Scholarship

Nonprofit leaders are frequently passionate about their organizations, many having devoted their lives and sacrificed significant material benefits for the sake of their causes. Often, though, this intense devotion unconsciously engenders an attitude of ownership towards their organizations (“This is my cause,” “I know best,” “No one else could possibly care/know/do as much as I do.”), rather than an attitude of stewardship (“We must welcome the best and all work in partnership together to address this great cause, and see that it continues addressing this need long after we are gone.”). This ethnographic study examined one nonprofit organization that espoused …

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The Impact Of Emotional Intelligence On Work Team Cohesiveness And Performance, Brigette Ann Rapisarda May 2002

The Impact Of Emotional Intelligence On Work Team Cohesiveness And Performance, Brigette Ann Rapisarda

Student Scholarship

Teams have become an increasingly critical element in work. The capability of team members' to work with each other will affect the cohesiveness and performance of the team. The sample consisted of 18 study groups within the Executive Masters of Business Administration (EMBA) program at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. The emotional intelligence demonstrated by each person was assessed through questionnaires completed in a 360-degree format by the students during their EMBA program. Members of each study group as well as multiple faculty members rated each group's cohesiveness and performance. The frequency of interaction was …

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A Priest In Transition, Terry Brizz May 2002

A Priest In Transition, Terry Brizz

Student Scholarship

In the U.S Roman Catholic Church, there is a concern that incoming pastors are ill-prepared to manage parishes. In the past 40 years, the number of men entering the priesthood has dropped dramatically. In many dioceses across the country, this dwindling supply of priests has led to priests becoming pastors after only two or three years from ordination. With the declining number of priests, the traditional apprenticeship model for training priests to develop into pastors is becoming severely challenged. Historically, priests worked under the tutelage of a number of pastors (4 or 5) over a number of years (20 to …

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Exploring Office Space Synergy -- Under The Radar, Stephen Brand May 2002

Exploring Office Space Synergy -- Under The Radar, Stephen Brand

Student Scholarship

You can find literature that discusses organizational culture and it's impact on success in business and office environments. A number of scholars have looked at the relationship between measured space from desk to desk and employee satisfaction (Oldham et al. (1991), and Keller (1986). Some have looked at the impact cubicles have had on the productivity of office workers. Throughout the last century, office design experts and consultants have recommended a wide range of ever-changing spatial schemes designed to increase the productivity of employees and minimize wasted time and informal dialogue. This ethnographic view of what goes on in office …

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Strangers In The Commons: Collective Action In Aging Policy, R. Robertson Hilton May 2002

Strangers In The Commons: Collective Action In Aging Policy, R. Robertson Hilton

Student Scholarship

This paper illuminates the urgent discourse on the future of long-term care for needy seniors. The aging of the “boomers” and the prospect of budget deficits animate this discourse. Little research has focused on this discourse since the end of the prosperity of the 1990’s. During the first three months of 2003, I studied a formally organized group of recognized leaders of the non-profit long-term care community of Northeast Ohio. My methodology enabled me to discern through an inductive process the underlying influences that drive collective action for new aging policy. These influences emerge despite the notable lack of a …

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World Class Manufacturing Best Practices; Do They Play In Peoria? An Ethnographic Study Of A Locally Based Production Facility, Michael R. Lopez Apr 2002

World Class Manufacturing Best Practices; Do They Play In Peoria? An Ethnographic Study Of A Locally Based Production Facility, Michael R. Lopez

Student Scholarship

Invoking the term “best practices” often conjures up the notion of a historically contingent body of regularized routines that are condoned by a particular community. As a whole, they can be viewed as being made up of rules and procedures that construct and legitimatize the way certain people see things and how they talk about them. As a natural consequence, these practices make possible certain statements and communication processes while inhibiting others. The subsequent discourse not only delimits what can be said, it also empowers some to speak authoritatively on the topic in question. In many respects, those perceived to …

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Sitting On Top Of The World; An Ethnography Of Elite Flyers Improving Service Recovery Cost - Effectiveness In A World Of Air Traffic Delays, Leonard Lane Aug 2001

Sitting On Top Of The World; An Ethnography Of Elite Flyers Improving Service Recovery Cost - Effectiveness In A World Of Air Traffic Delays, Leonard Lane

Student Scholarship

The question this study set out to answer was: what are the drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty for “elite” airline flyers, in face of the unprecedented decline over the last three years (as indicated by the number of flight delays and cancellations) in the most tangible aspects of customer service. I asked this question because I wanted to find out how the flyer’s sense of elitism and loyaltytotheairlinecouldbemaintainedinthefaceofterribleservicedeliveredbytheairlines. This knowledge would be important for airlines to know inasmuch as this elite group is a major segment of the 2% of an airline’s passengers that contribute 70% of the airline’s …

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Lessons In Ethical Capital Asset Management: The Challenges Of A Local School Board, Susan Mctiernan Jul 2001

Lessons In Ethical Capital Asset Management: The Challenges Of A Local School Board, Susan Mctiernan

Student Scholarship

The work presented here actually had its genesis in the fall of 2000 when I began regular observations of the local school board as it attempted to resolve a major conflict that involved not just the board, but a variety of its stakeholder groups. My interest in this board's dilemma was informed by previous personal service on various boards and the challenges that were faced by my colleagues and me in dealing with various stakeholders. I sought to sort out questions associated with the involvement of stakeholders and the board and to answer those that went to whether there was …

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Ten Thin Slices: A Study Of Customer Satisfaction In Retail Business Transactions Wherein Service Providers And Customers Have Different Primary Languages, C. Fritz Reichert Jul 2001

Ten Thin Slices: A Study Of Customer Satisfaction In Retail Business Transactions Wherein Service Providers And Customers Have Different Primary Languages, C. Fritz Reichert

Student Scholarship

This paper addresses the effect on customer service satisfaction of primary language differences between service personnel and customers in retail store environments. This study was conducted using ethnographic research methods in five different retail store environments where service personnel were Spanish-speaking and customers English- speaking. The results of the study suggest that primary language differences in the service dyad can result in impaired service and customer dissatisfaction. The results of the study also indicate that store management can control some factors to increase customer satisfaction.

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