Business Commons^™

Conservation Agriculture Assists Smallholder Farmers And Their Agroecosystem In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Willy Mulimbi, Kristofor R. Brye, Lawton L. Nalley, Damas R. Birindwa

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

onservation agriculture, a sustainable farming practice combining no or minimum soil disturbance, crop diversification, and soil cover, can benefit humans and the biophysical environment. However, less than half of Sub-Saharan African countries implement conservation agriculture, and the majority of smallholder farmers are using unsustainable practices. Research and field trials on conservation agriculture adaptation to soil and agroecological conditions are vital for increasing adoption of conservation agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. The objectives of this study were to (i) evaluate the change in soil chemical properties and soil biology from implementation of conservation agriculture, (ii) assess cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) …

A Randomized Group Approach To Identifying Label Effects, Brandon R. Mcfadden, Jayson L. Lusk, Adam Pollack, Joy N. Rumble, Kathryn A. Stofer, Kevin M. Folta

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Motivated by the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS), which requires companies to label bioengineered food products, this paper examines the choice effects of using a symbol approved by the standard relative to using text to disclose that a food product has bioengineered contents. Choice effects were determined using a randomized group design that assigned respondents to one-of-two labeled choice experiment groups. One group selected products that used the symbol disclosure and the other group selected products using text disclosure. Besides a label, the price was the only attribute displayed to respondents during the choice experiment and varied at three …

Sneakerhead Culture: Consumers And Their Ecological Consciousness, Maria Cervantes

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis aims to investigate the unique subculture of “sneakerheads” and their buying behavior/attitudes, catering carefully to the Northwest Arkansas community and their small community. Sneakerhead culture has gained significant popularity in recent years, with decades of history to back up the phenomenon. Sneaker connoisseurs collect these glamourous, expensive, and rare footwear and are keepsakes of self-expression and identity formation. The study employs an ecological approach to their purchases and seeks to find whether retail and non-retail sneakerheads are conscious of their ecological footprint. The research methodology involves a questionnaire that is catered towards retail or non-retail employees based on …

Yala Designs Marketing Strategy, Anna Buckley

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper dives into the complexities of a sustainable pajama company's social media marketing strategy. This paper also analyzes the strategies of competitors and market leaders in an attempt to formulate suggested strategies based off their success.

Sharing Economy Last Mile Delivery: Three Essays Addressing Operational Challenges, Customer Expectations, And Supply Uncertainty, Nicolò Masorgo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Last mile delivery has become a critical competitive dimension facing retail supply chains. At the same time, the emergence of sharing economy platforms has introduced unique operational challenges and benefits that enable and inhibit retailers’ last mile delivery goals. This dissertation investigates key challenges faced by crowdshipping platforms used in last mile delivery related to crowdsourced delivery drivers, driver-customer interaction, and customer expectations. We investigate the research questions of this dissertation through a multi-method design approach, complementing a rich archival dataset comprised of several million orders retrieved from a Fortune 100 retail crowdshipping platform, with scenario-based experiments. Specifically, the first …

Stigma, Taboo, And Deviancy: An Anthropological Study Of The Influence Of Sociocultural Worldviews On Entrepreneurship And Innovation, Roary Snider

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Navigating the intricate relationships between cultural factors, entrepreneurship, and innovation remains a challenging task for scholars. While most of the existing research has a strong focus on national-level culture or regional-specific cultural peculiarities, this study explores the application of novel anthropological theory. The objective is to enrich our understanding of how social regulation and group integration can influence individual perspectives on entrepreneurship and innovation. This study draws inspiration from Joseph Schumpeter's idea of the entrepreneur as a deviant who disrupts social norms through entrepreneurial activities. Although results are mixed, the study does indicate the relevance of anthropological approaches and specifically …

Live Music Venue Marketing In A Post-Covid Northwest Arkansas, Griffen Walden

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

What does a medium sized music venue, nearing its centennial in a college town, do when its doors have closed for the first time since a short 2004 renovation, due to the novel Coronavirus Pandemic? George’s Majestic Lounge, the historic live music venue located in the heart of downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas, ceased operation for 134 days, its longest ever closure, and emerged into a climate massively different from what it had entered the pandemic in (Drury, et al. 2021). This venue has stood the test of time; opened in 1927 by George Pappas, it has remained in its railroad-adjacent position …

Beef And Dairy Substitution Effects Associated With Carbon Labeling And An Information Intervention, Sara Gardner Hedgecock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding consumer perceptions of carbon emissions in agriculture is a critical step to help increase the sustainability of food consumption. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 14.5 percent of all global anthropogenic GHG emissions are estimated to be represented by livestock (FAO), and cattle, raised for beef and milk, are the largest animal species responsible for emissions, comprising over 60 percent of the livestock sector’s emissions. This motivates this study’s analysis of beef and dairy milk products and alternatives. To better understand how consumers may substitute meat and milk products when provided with information about …

Essays Examining Humanitarian Supply Chains: Investigating Operational Characteristics, Activities, And Performance, Llord Brooks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the frequency and severity of disasters continue to increase, the need for collaboration amongst all humanitarian stakeholders in humanitarian supply chain activities during all aspects of the disaster cycle has become more critical to the success of relief operations. Humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are voluntary organizations operating in highly dynamic and chaotic environments to provide aid to people in need. But as the impact of disaster increases and the funding becomes more limited and competitive, they face mounting pressures from stakeholders to improve the quality of their operations. Similarly, private organizations are also under higher levels of scrutiny to …

Index Fund Ownership And Stock Price Efficiency: Evidence From Quarterly Earnings Seasons, Joe López Vilaró

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While prior research argues that individual investors benefit from a switch to passive investment in index funds (French 2008, Bond and García 2022), higher levels of index fund ownership of firm shares lead to competing factors that influence a firm’s price efficiency (i.e., the speed and accuracy with which a firm’s stock price reflects investor consensus on the information provided about a firm). If relative investor sophistication increases as index fund ownership increases, there is a benefit to the firm’s price efficiency. Yet, more shares held passively limit the shares available for investors to actively incorporate firm news, adversely impacting …

Team Overall Relationship Quality: Examining Factor Structure And Predictive Precision Among Relationship-Based Team Emergent States, Cody Bradley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Given that work teams are defined partly in terms of relationships (e.g., members interact socially, maintain and manage boundaries, exhibit interdependencies; Kozlowski & Bell, 2013), it is not surprising that many work team constructs (e.g., team trust, team cohesion, team satisfaction, and team commitment) focus, to some extent, on capturing the “health” or “quality” of relationships among team members. While these relational team constructs reliably correlate with important outcomes such as team performance (e.g., Breuer et al., 2016; Castaño et al., 2013; Thatcher & Patel, 2011), they tend to be studied in isolation, as if they are entirely separate variables. …

The Role Of Platform Openness In Complementary Innovation, Jia Wei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two important roles in a platform ecosystem are platform owners and complementors that cooperate to create value through indirect network effects. To facilitate such cooperation, platforms implement platform openness to provide significant resources for their complementors. Granting complementors access to platform core resources through application programming interfaces enables complementors to access the platform’s core development assets such as built-in software functionalities, data, and the user base. This resource provision is the dominant way for platforms to “open” their platform to complementors. While platform openness has attracted scholarly attention, there is a gap in understanding the role of platform openness …

Do Fas Large Export Sales Reports Move Commodity Futures Markets?, William Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to determine if the Large Export Reports from the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service have any discernible market-moving impact on particular commodity futures markets. The effect of the reports on futures markets is investigated using four different methods: the average return event study approach, the multiple regression with binary variables model, the autoregressive time series model, and the event spline model. The average returns showed that the FAS's Large Export Sales Reports had no influence on the pricing of wheat futures, but did have a considerable impact on the returns from days before and after the release of …

Non-Physical Abuse In Sports: Organizational Culture’S Role, Ian O'Rourke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of sport professionals who worked in organizations that tolerated non-physical abuse. This qualitative study used active interviewing and grounded-theory design to guide the data collection and coding efforts. The data identified emerging themes to generate essential theory. The research collected data through interviews with 10 sport professionals. This phenomenological study looked at sport professionals’ experiences who worked at private sport organizations and those that worked within a university athletic department. Interview responses illustrated that all participants experienced comparable treatment and felt similarly to the non-physical abuse taking place. An interesting …

The Appropriateness Of Outlier Exclusion Approaches Depends On The Expected Contamination: Commentary On André (2022), Daniel Villanova

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

In a recent article, André (2022) addressed the decision to exclude outliers using a threshold across conditions or within conditions and offered a clear recommendation to avoid within-conditions exclusions because of the possibility for large false-positive inflation. In this commentary, I note that André’s simulations did not include the situation for which within-conditions exclusion has previously been recommended—when across-conditions exclusion would exacerbate selection bias. Examining test performance in this situation confirms the recommendation for within-conditions exclusion in such a circumstance. Critically, the suitability of exclusion criteria must be considered in relationship to assumptions about data-generating mechanisms.

Online Or In-Store - Shopper Channel Preference Study - 2023, Dinesh K. Gauri

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

As channels converge, consumers have many choices for shopping. Understanding how consumers shop is important for retailers looking to customize their product and service offerings. This report of US Shoppers provides key insights on the current trends in selecting the channels for shopping.

The Evolution Of 5g: Delineating The Impact And Limitations Across Transportation, Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, And Manufacturing, Thomas Bailey

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

A world previously only thought possible in science fiction is about to become a reality. A world where doctors can operate on patients thousands of miles away. A world where students can experience ancient cities and distant galalike they are physically there. A world of fully self-driving cars. A world where every step of the supply chain is automated. A world where factories have a handful of employees overseeing robots handling the entire manufacturing process. A world of fully autonomous farms, where one farmer can manage an entire farm from seed to harvest from their smartphone. The development, implementation, and …

Grassroots Lawn Services Business Plan, Logan Walden

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The objective of this thesis is to show how a lawn-care company can be profitable in North-West Arkansas. Grassroots uses a group of service-partners who are trained to provide professional and consistent lawn care services to customers. Grassroots Lawn Services offers different service levels to meet the changing needs of their customers. The goal is to make it easier for customers to access lawn care services without dealing with the high cost and competitive scheduling of traditional single-provider lawn services.

Estimating The Economic And Health Benefits Of Bicycling In Northwest Arkansas, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

Over the past year, the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas conducted an analysis of the economic and health benefits of bicycling in Northwest Arkansas. The study was commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation and built on a previous study completed in 2018. The data and analysis presented in this study will inform regional and state policymakers, funders, and other community stakeholders about the overall return-on-investment from the significant investments in the bicycling ecosystem in Northwest Arkansas.

Go And Grow Business Plan For A Social Media Application, Piper Duke

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

Go and Grow proposes to develop a new iOS social media application to connect students studying abroad with students in the destination country. With the use of geolocation, in-app communication, and multi-language support, Go and Grow allows students to make the most of their once in a lifetime experience and give local people and businesses a chance to show off their home country. With Go and Grow, users will create relationship networks by posting questions, connecting with locals, and accessing information not provided by their program, making the student feel more comfortable before they depart and while they are in …

How Company Culture Can Make Or Break An Organization, Savannah Rubino

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

"Company culture" is one of many buzz phrases researchers use to define the climate of the modern workforce. It's a company's shared values and beliefs and manifests in the way they do business, what employees they attract, and even their bottom line. Company culture initially gained traction during the COVID-19 work-from-home wave when a remote setting allowed companies and employees alike to reevaluate the role of the workplace in their lives and how it shapes their personal and professional goals. This caused a pivot from "hustle" workplace culture to more of a holistic, balanced one. According to Forbes, hustle culture …

The Impact Of The Corporate Workspace On Employee Happiness And Turnover Rate, Sarah Ayla Johnston

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The physical workspace is one that we can see, touch and smell (Morgan, 2018). From the floor layout to the furniture that fills the space, it all makes up the physical workspace where employees come to work. Physical workspaces can also include a cafeteria, gym, arcade area, etc. Prior studies have shown that small, yet meaningful modifications can be made to achieve an optimal workspace (Heitzman, 2018). The purpose of this study is to collect data from employees who conduct work in different office layouts to see how their physical workspace affects their overall happiness and their intent of staying …

Life-Tactics Business Plan, Tanvir Mondair

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

High schools often have career programs, however, the demand for career guidance counselors outweighs the supply. Thus Life-Tactics was created and dedicated to teaching students about career readiness post-high school graduation. Life-Tactics teaches students about career guidance, opportunities post-graduation, and provides students with resources to make better-informed decisions after they graduate.

The “Invisible” Impact In The Arts: A Multiple-Case Comparative Study Depicting The Challenge Of Impact Reporting For Arts Impact Organizations, Heidi Rolf

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This Honors Thesis researches the complex interrogative following the arts impact industry and the impact reporting methods available to the organizations within this industry. The research is achieved through a multiple-case study on six different arts impact organizations and additional web-based analysis. The case studies provide the structure for the ultimate discussion on available impact reporting methods for arts impact organizations and the level of importance, difficulty, and constraints associated with this form of reporting. This study presents detail on the growth and position of the current arts impact industry as well as that of the creative economy as a …

The Family Medical Leave Act: The Current Regulations And Future Recommended Changes, Olivia Schmidt

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Family Medical Leave Act was implemented in 1993, affecting thousands of employees. This act allows caregivers the time to care for their loved ones and for people to take the time they need to heal and care for themselves, all while maintaining their careers. While the workforce and it’s needs have changed over the years, FMLA has remained stagnant with minimal adjustments at the federal level. There are many different aspects to FMLA including different state regulations, different industry effects, and the special case of the airline industry. While FMLA was an important change in 1993, it needs to …

Digital To Phygital: An Analysis Of How A Better Collaboration Between Interior Designers And Mobile App Developers Could Improve The Future Of Retail, Hayden Wyrick

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

Interior designers and mobile app developers equally play a role in the design of omnichannel retailing spaces (either within the physical or digital realm) where retailers and consumers interact with each other; yet they hardly work in tandem. Omnichannel retailing creates a seamless experience for consumers when interacting with a retailer and allows them to purchase items in a cross-channel setting. Consumer expectations of retailers’ omnichannel approaches are increasing, and therefore this study investigates two of the most successful retailers, Walmart and Amazon, through a qualitative approach of case studies, interviews, and public observations. This study intended to explore the …

Solar Grazing As A Possible Vegetation Management Solution: A Budget Analysis, Byron Louk

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

A growing response to climate change among agricultural producers is to integrate renewable energy production in their portfolio of enterprises. Nonetheless, land use competition for agricultural production and solar energy production exists. To alleviate some of this competition, and possibly generate income for sheep grazers, photovoltaic (PV) system operators may save on operations and maintenance by grazing forages under solar panels rather than using mechanical or chemical means of vegetation management. “Solar grazing” operations have been shown to be economically feasible for PV system operators who own the land and pay for sheep grazing as a method of vegetation management, …

Overcoming Challenges And Building Bridges: A Journey Towards Sustainable Tourism Development In Dangriga, Belize, Drew Patterson

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This article discusses the challenges and potential solutions for enhancing tourism in Dangriga, the largest town in the Stann Creek District of Belize. Despite being known as the "Culture Capital of Belize," Dangriga attracts fewer tourists compared to smaller towns in the country. The lack of tourist influx could be attributed to limited understanding of internet marketing by local business owners and the town's focus on its cultural identity rather than catering specifically to tourists. The article emphasizes the importance of online marketing in promoting tourism and suggests that improving the online presence of local businesses could boost the tourism …

Beyond Boarders For First-Generation Students, Nayeli Ortiz

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

1. Tabeling at TRIO and Multicultural Center events

2. Require academic advisors to have at least one conversation with every student about studying abroad (never assume a student is not interested or unable to go)

3. Overtly feature first-generation study abroad students in social media and Hogs Abroad website.

4. Network interested students with students who have completed study abroad

5. Offer a promotional study-abroad program for first-generation students

6. Promote funding information and add more first-generation specific scholarships

Turbocharge Tutoring Business Plan, Daniel Rugen Haller

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

College tutoring business plan.