Business Commons^™

Ransomware Is Quietly Devastating American Healthcare Facilities, Benjamin Powers

Capstones

The patient didn’t attract any attention initially. They were just one more cog moving through the system that was the massive hospital complex on your average day. That was, until they were shown to a room, and left alone. At that point, they removed a flash drive from their pocket and tried to insert it into a computer — with the goal of accessing the hospitals computer systems.

This is according to the Chief Information Security Officer at a major Northwest university hospital system, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitive nature of such attacks.

The imposter patient was …

The Price Of Regulating The Self-Storage Industry In New York City, Modou Nyang

Capstones

In December 2017, New York City Council passed a regulation that curtailed the growth of self-storage facilities in the city’s Industrial Business Zones. As a result, major self-storage developers in the city diverted their investments to other business portfolios. But the demand for storage in New York City is high. And due to high population density coupled with small living quarters, peoples need for extra space in the city is huge. In contrast, studies show that peoples need for storage in the city is underserved. In this article, i spoke to policy makers, activists and developers in the self-storage industry …

Google Has A Labor Problem, And It’S Not Just Coming From Its Employees, Daniel Whateley

Capstones

For decades, technology companies have used temporary and contract workers to lower costs, creating a shadow workforce of thousands of indirect employees. That business model is now under threat.

In September 2019, 80 contract workers at Google’s Pittsburgh office voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers, the first time that white-collar tech workers in the U.S. have successfully organized with a union. These contractors are employees of HCL Technologies, an Indian multinational IT and consulting company that partners with Google around the world.

Tech and office workers face a different set of workplace issues from blue-collar and factory employees, which …

In The Midst Of The Apocalypse, Artificial Intelligence Can Save Brick And Mortar Retailers, Vrushank Nayak

Capstones

You might have heard that brick and mortar stores are closing by the thousands but I bet you didn't hear that brick and mortar stores are using artificial intelligence and customer data to help them counter closures and stay relevant in the transitioning retail industry.

https://coveringcompanies.journalism.cuny.edu/2020/01/07/in-the-midst-of-the-apocalypse-artificial-intelligence-can-save-brick-and-mortar-retailers/

Getting It Right: New York Can Make Its ‘Inevitable’ Marijuana Industry Accessible Before It’S Too Late, Kelly Zegers

Capstones

New York is inching closer to marijuana legalization. It's often touted as a tax revenue boost for states and a fast-moving industry to be cashed in on. But who gets to have access to those benefits? Advocates are working to make sure that communities hurt by marijuana prohibition have the option and pathway to build businesses in the legal marijuana market. Small farmers are looking to grow marijuana, some hoping to take apply what they've learned about and benefited from, cultivating hemp. What's clear in a quickly evolving industry in other states is that there's no golden standard for accessibility. …

Not Just Yet: Despite Grinding It Out In Silicon Valley, Asians Are Least Likely To Lead Big Tech Companies, Karishma Vanjani

Capstones

Silicon Valley has long been known for the paucity of African-Americans and Hispanics in its ranks, but equally telling is the fact that the vast majority of Asians hired for non-managerial jobs are not moving up to management. The lack of diversity in the upper echelons of the companies is due in part to the maddening stereotype that Asians are too passive. White managers mentoring and supervising Asian employees face a wide gap in understanding cultural disparities. For the companies, though, tightening immigration policies can become barriers when they consider promoting Asians in the country on work visas.

https://karishmavanjani.com/writing/not-just-yet-despite-grinding-it-out-in-silicon-valley-asians-are-least-likely-to-lead-big-tech-companies/?_thumbnail_id=610

From Muhammed To The Jobup: Engaging Malemployed Immigrants Through Journalism, Tiziana Rinaldi

Capstones

I focused my graduate work on the local community of malemployed immigrants. They are foreign-educated newcomers — medical doctors, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers and engineers, to name a few of their professions — who lack the resources to find skill- appropriate work in the U.S. They end up either unemployed or working at "jobs for which they’re overqualified or overeducated or both,” I wrote for NJSpotlight in 20171.

Using the social journalism method2 of engaging members of a chosen group to fill important if not crucial information gaps, I developed The JobUp, a series of free, offline educational events, as my …

Credit Disaster, Orla Mccaffrey

Capstones

“Credit disaster” explains how inconsistent reporting to credit bureaus in the wake of natural disasters reduces victims’ credit access. It explores how the low rate of credit suppression on products from mortgages to auto loans can delay recovery indefinitely. Regulatory changes have been proposed, but there is little incentive for lenders or credit bureaus to change the current system.

https://www.orlamccaffrey.com/natural-disasters-credit-scores

Black Graduates Confront Another Crisis Amid Protests And Pandemic, Jazmin Goodwin

Capstones

Black graduates confront another crisis amid protests and pandemic: Their optimistic expectations are now dashed and the result will be more inequality in America.

Much has been written about how among America’s workers, youth will suffer the greatest economic setbacks during the pandemic. Just like millennials who entered the labor force after the 2008 financial crisis, Generation Z will likely experience permanent declines in wealth, which will have ripple effects on their health and wellbeing. But those setbacks aren’t evenly distributed. Among young workers, Black youth will likely bear the largest burden.

Link to capstone project: http://www.blackgrads2020.com/

An Exploratory Study Of How Millennials Approach And Communicate Mental Health In The Workplace, Johanna I. Seitenbach

Student Theses and Dissertations

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting more than 300 million people. As more millennials take on leadership positions, it is important to understand how companies are currently addressing mental health in the workplace and compare this to how millennials approach the subject. The quantitative analysis completed through this study helped to determine what a mentally healthy workplace looks and feels like for millennials. Companies are increasingly investing in mental health initiatives for several reasons: to increase brand recognition, to improve company culture, to mitigate potential lawsuits, and to increase employee engagement and retention. This survey assessed how …

As The Hourly Minimum Wage Moves Toward $15 Across New York State, Some Say The Fight For A Decent Living Is Far From Over., Barbara Prempeh

Capstones

This capstone projects examines the coming of the fight for a $15 minimum wage across New York State and beyond its borders. In 2012, the Fight for $15 organization took the streets of NYC to begin their fight only raising the wages for low income earners who work in different industries such fast- fast, hospitality, and even retail. For years now, the government has yet raise the minimum wage for all Americans which has caused several families to feel a crunch in affording a normal lifestyle. Since the start of this fueled fight, New York City is one of the …

Cost Stickiness And Supply Chain Bargaining Power, Binghao (Jimmy) Zhao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given the essential role of supply chains in the economy, furthering our understanding of the interactions between trade partners is important. In this paper, I study the relation between cost stickiness and bargaining power over supply chain partners. I document evidence consistent with the argument that firms wield supply chain bargaining power to avoid cost stickiness by shifting high adjustment costs onto their trade partners. In particular, I show that the level of SG&A and COGS stickiness is negatively associated with firms’ bargaining power over their suppliers and customers. My results are robust to using industry competition as an alternative …

Place-Making By Black And Latinx Students In Predominantly White Institutions: Participatory Design And Meaning Making Through A Social Enterprise, Joshua P.H. Livingston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black and Latinx male retention in post-secondary institutions, particularly predominantly white institutions (PWI), remains a critical social problem. Even though many PWIs set up structures to welcome and support Black and Latinx males, those structures are defined and created through dominant cultural norms. They have been challenged to mitigate the individualized facets of disengagement. A social innovation, proof of concept model was conceptualized, designed, and developed alongside Black and Latinx males in college. Social innovation is defined as a new way of approaching long standing and complex problems. Proof of concept (PoC) helps to validate that processes and designs are …

The Superstitious Heuristic In Strategic Decision-Making, Jing Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on an important but largely ignored phenomenon in the strategic decision literature which I refer to as the use of superstitious heuristics in strategic decision-making. I define the superstitious heuristic as a decision shortcut based on one’s beliefs in the existence of forces or essences that transcend the boundary between the mental/symbolic and physical/material realities in a way that is unsupported by contemporary science. The use ofsuperstitious heuristics in strategic decision-making is prevalent in major economies and influences firms’ strategic behaviors and performance. In this dissertation, I first explored the concept of the superstitious heuristic and …

The Impact Of Local Broadband Coverage On U.S. Firms’ Information Environment, Zhiyuan Tu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates the impact of local broadband coverage on the information environment of firms located in the United States. I hypothesize that more intensive local broadband coverage improves the overall quality of a firm’s information environment by allowing more locally generated firm-specific news to be more broadly disseminated via the Internet. I use the Federal Communication Commission (FCC)’s form 477 data to measure the intensity of local broadband coverage. I find that more intensive local broadband coverage near a firm is associated with a firm having smaller earnings surprises, and lower abnormal information asymmetry around quarterly earnings announcements. These …

Essays On New Keynesian Term Premium Model With Financial Risks, Weiguo Fu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies the modeling of U.S. Treasury (UST) yield curve term premia under the New Keynesian (NK) framework. Loosely speaking, term premium is the difference between a government bond’s yield for a specific tenor and the average of the expected short rates up to that tenor. The dissertation is divided into three chapters. The first chapter proposes a New Keynesianism-based macro-finance model estimated by a one-step full information maximum likelihood (FIML) method. The second chapter shows that the one-step FIML method may produce estimation biases, which result in biased expected short rates and term premia. The chapter then presents …

New Factor Structure Models And Idiosyncratic Volatility, Ossama Elhadary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I propose new factor structures that are based on the Fama-French style factors but include additional locations like the industry groups and the exchanges where the stocks are traded. I show that the stock returns are clustered around the industry groups and the exchanges. Idiosyncratic volatility calculated using the new factor structure models tend to be smaller than those calculated using the traditional Fama-French model. By sorting portfolios using the idiosyncratic volatility computed using the new factor models, a trader can gain larger profits compared to sorting the portfolio using the traditionally calculated idiosyncratic volatility.

Runaway: A History Of Postwar New York In Four Factories, Andy Battle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At midcentury, New York City was among the preeminent manufacturing centers in the United States. Within a generation, this manufacturing economy suffered an extraordinary collapse. Beginning in the 1950s, workers and their unions began to use the term “runaway” to describe factories that pulled up stakes in New York and set them back down in other climes. This dissertation explores the deindustrialization of New York City through case studies of “runaway” plants, or factories that left New York for the American South or abroad between the years 1945 and 1975.

In general, the manufacturers that remained in New York at …

Externalities Of Cds Trading: The Effect On Industry Peer Firms’ Cost Of Debt, Sunqian Ren

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper documents externalities associated with the introduction of credit default swaps (CDS) in the corporate bond market. I find that firms without traded CDS contracts (non-CDS firms) experience lower cost of debt when there are more peer firms with traded CDS contracts (CDS firms). This effect is stronger when non-CDS firms are more closely related to a CDS-firm and when the outstanding CDS contracts are more liquid. My findings are consistent with the view that CDS trading provides hedging opportunities and information for bond investors of non-CDS firms. This study provides evidence that CDS trading on peer firms has …

The Art Of The Rebrand: Utilizing Strategic Communications To Obtain Employee Buy-In During A Rebrand, Samantha Azizo

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify how organizations can effectively communicate with employees during a rebrand in order to obtain their acceptance of the changes, otherwise known as employee buy-in. Prior research has found that employee acceptance of a rebrand is a contributing factor towards a successful rebrand; however, prior research fails to determine how the rebrand can be best communicated to employees to obtain their buy-in. The research performed for the study took place in two parts. First, 142 online surveys probing employee and consumer perception about rebranding were performed. Secondly, three semi-structured interviews with professionals who …

A Study Of Factors Affecting The Credibility Of Sponsored Posts Created By Instagram Influencers, Nakyung Lee

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how source expertise, objective information about product ingredients and benefits, review length, and the use of promotional language influence the perceived credibility of a sponsored review post for skincare products. This study carried out 4 in-depth interviews and online survey to 106 millennials living in the U.S. Results indicated that subjective comments about a reviewer’s personal experiences had a higher level of perceived credibility of a review post than objective information about product ingredients and benefits. With regard to source expertise, a sponsored review post written by an influencer with higher expertise was perceived as more reliable …

Together Apart: Influences And Barriers To Engagement Among Remote Workers, Stacey-Robin H. Johnson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Organizations recognize the importance of having employees who do more than 'show up' for work. Rather, the goal is to have employees who will adapt to, embody, and promote the values, agenda, and strategic purposes of the organization beyond their work life. In the efforts around engagement, there are key influences in the organizational lifespan of an employee that can inspire or discourage engagement attitudes and behaviors.

Remote workers (defined here as those who work outside of a central, collective work setting) present unique challenges, the most pressing being maintaining a sense of connection and inclusion among the group in …

Illness And The American Workplace: Issues And Implications For Employers And Employees, Victoria R. Dolan

Student Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to identify American employee experiences and existing workplace policies and cultures surrounding illness, disability, and sick leave. This approach was taken in order to closely examine what looks to be working well for companies and workers, and what could benefit from a more human centric approach in regards to workplace policy and employee support programs. The study of employee experiences in particular represents a gap in the current scholarly literature regarding illness and illness policy in the American workplace, and more accurately represents the experiences for both employees and employers. Furthermore, it assists with distinguishing the types …

The Quality Of Xbrl Structured Financial Statements: An Empirical Examination Of Custom Tags, Aidana Razhap Kyzy

Theses and Dissertations

In 2009 the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) system to improve the process by which financial statements can be used. Interactive financial data filed with the SEC using XBRL provides easily readable and comparable financial data, thereby improving transparency and efficiency in the corporate market. SEC rules permit companies to use custom tags in their financial reports in cases when an appropriate element cannot be found in the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) standard XBRL taxonomy. The inordinate use of custom tags may result in a reduction of financial report quality by …

Consumers’ Reactions To Multiple Instances Of Negative Publicity: The Role Of Publicity Domain Similarity, Berna Basar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although it is very typical for consumers to be exposed to multiple instances of negative publicity about a brand, existing research has focused on consumers’ reactions to one-time negative publicity instances. Given the important role of self-brand connection in consumers’ reactions to negative brand-related information, the current study investigates how consumers with different self-brand connection levels react to multiple instances of negative publicity in a single domain versus across different domains. Specifically, I suggest that consumers with high self-brand connection might be defense motivated, which in return, might result in justification of one-time instances unless consistency in behavior is signaled. …

Accelerators: Their Fit In The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem And Their Cohort Selection Challenges, Shu Yang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The entrepreneurial financing landscape has drastically evolved over the past two decades with many of the new entrants (e.g., crowdfunders, accelerators, incubators, etc) rapidly rising to prominence (Block et al., 2016). Evolving from the incubator model, startup accelerators have similarly gained traction over the past decade (Pauwels, Clarysse, Wright, & Van Hove, 2016). While the number of published articles focusing on accelerators has been growing, extant research has yet to clearly delineate the accelerator phenomena conceptually and more importantly, empirically examine its selection mechanism. This dissertation addresses this gap and is composed of two parts. In the first part, I …

Essays On Bank Acquisitions And Systemic Risk, Farindokht Vaghefi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of two chapters on bank acquisitions and systemic risk.

Chapter 1: This chapter explores whether bank acquisitions are associated with systemic risk-shifting. Acquisitions can form larger and more diversified firms and, as such, increase the correlation of the acquirer's investment with other banks and subsequently the probability of their joint failure. This can be beneficial for the acquirer due to (implicit) government ``too-many-to-fail'' guarantees. I find that bank acquisitions on average lead to an increase in acquires' systemic risk, which is in turn associated with an increase in firm value for non-distressed acquisitions. Interestingly, congruent with the …

Fashion Merchandising: An Augmented Reality, Naeha A. Sayed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a continuous and constant transformation in the field of Augmented Reality (AR), both in the Retail, and the Manufacturing sector. It has started to influence everything from fashion runway shows to online shopping. Consumers dynamics have shifted in the fashion industry, the ways becoming more dominant than the old observant ones- the simple buying experience no longer satisfies them. Due to the emergence of the new digital platforms and technological enhancements, the consumers are looking for more- be it a more exciting buying experience or more user interaction or more enhanced products. This technological change starts with the …

New Perspectives About Financial Intermediation: Disruption By Senior Managers And Financial Technologies, Yu Shan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that span managerial styles, financial technologies, and social interactions.

Chapter 1 Banks increase credit risk-taking in syndicated bank loans when their systemic risk increases; however, the interrelationship across risks depends on bank managerial styles. Using a connectedness sampling method to differentiate patterns of business policy styles and systemic risk-taking among managers, I find that credit risk-taking is more sensitive to the bank's systemic risk if the manager exhibits a preference for systemic risk. Asset-innovating managers (exhibiting a preference for non-traditional forms of income and assets) take higher credit risk in their loan portfolios, but …

Leverage Adjustment And Credit Risk, Wei He

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three coherent chapters that discuss the capital structure target, speed of adjustment and effect of speed of adjustment on credit risk.

Ⅰ: We standardize leverage ratio by underlying business risk. The methodology of standardization follows the assumption that asset value follows a geometric Brownian motion. We find that by standardizing book leverage ratio, standardized leverage ratio can be explained by firm characteristics with a much larger coefficient of determination compared with book leverage ratio. The coefficient of determination difference of regression with standardized leverage ratio and book leverage ratio becomes even larger if we exclude zero …