Business Commons^™

A Focused Evaluation Of Sales Employees' Ethics Training And Its Effect On The Diffusion Of Ethics In A Financial Organization, Justin Luebker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ethical scandals have continued to batter corporate America into the twenty-first century. Companies such as Enron and MCI WorldCom became household names overnight because of ethical issues that shuttered the organizations’ operations and stunned shareholders. Training has served as a primary mechanism for companies to impart ethical values in employees and leadership teams. However, despite the ongoing focus and resources dedicated to education and associate development in this area, historically there appears to be no diffusion of ethical standards within organizations. There is a lack of consensus in current research regarding the effectiveness of organizational ethics training and its ability …

[Dis]Assembling Race: The Fepc In Oklahoma, 1941-1946, Arley Ward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On the World War II home front in Oklahoma the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) succeeded in securing defense jobs for African Americans. The efforts of the committee, The Oklahoma Eagle, the Oklahoma City Black Dispatch, and the State Conference of Branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) advanced civil rights in Oklahoma throughout World War II and beyond. The efforts of the FEPC in Oklahoma connect civil rights efforts in the 1940s directly to Brown v Board of Education, (1954) and the classic civil rights movement.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Compassion Organizing And The University Advancement Workplace, Christina Marie Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Compassion organizing has been described within positive organizational scholarship as an organization’s response to pain and suffering in organizational behavior and also the ability for organizations to flourish and promote joy and fulfillment in the workplace. Compassion organizing has been examined in organizational life through the four areas of noticing, feeling, acting, and sense-making. Previous research has focused on business and healthcare workplaces and has shown that compassion organizing is both an organizational and interpersonal social process. Because of the limited existing research on compassion organizing in the higher education workplace (and none with respect to the university advancement workplace), …

How Bad Do You Want It?: The Personal Motivation Of Joining A Sorority, Garry Butler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

College campuses provide students with endless opportunities to become members of various student organizations that provide leadership, accountability, a sense of belonging, personal growth, and development. Many colleges have provided students with the opportunities to join social Greek fraternity and sorority organizations. The foundation of social fraternity and sorority organizations are built on principles such as sisterhood, brotherhood, scholarship, service, philanthropy, and leadership. Many traditional college-age women who desire to become members of a social sorority organization all participate in a formal recruitment process. There are various motivations that traditional college-age women have for joining social sororities on college campuses …

Rice Quality And Its Impacts On Food Security And Sustainability In Bangladesh, Indrani Saha, Alvaro Durand-Morat, Lawton Lanier Nalley, Mohammad Jahangir Alam, Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr.

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rice market efficiency is important for food security in countries where rice is a staple. We assess the impact of rice quality on rice prices, food security, and environmental sustainability in Bangladesh. We find that while price varies as expected for most quality attributes, it is unaffected by a broken percentage below 24.9 percent. This reveals a potential inefficiency, considering the average 5 percent broken rate observed in the market. An increase in the broken rate of milled rice within the limits supported by our findings can, ceteris paribus, increase rice rations by 4.66 million a year, or conversely, …

Invited Review: Lessons From The Covid-19 Pandemic For Food Supply Chains, John D. Anderson, James L. Mitchell, Joshua G. Maples

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

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Remixed, Remastered: Investigating Organizational Adaptation In Higher Music Education, Jacob Bruce Hertzog

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher music education presents a unique opportunity to examine change within higher education due to the digital revolution in the music industry over the past two decades. The purpose for conducting this study was to describe, map, and explain the strategies that higher music education programs are using to adapt to the digital revolution in the music industry. This study was grounded in organizational adaptation theory, drawing upon nine well-established theories: population ecology, life cycles, strategic choice, isomorphism, symbolic action, resource dependence, cybernetics, and network theory. Critical concepts of the turbulent environment, environmental perception, and organizational adaptation strategy emerged from …

Precise Nitrogen Recommendations Improve Economic And Environmental Outcomes In Arkansas Rice Production, Cristin Roberts

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Soil testing has become an increasingly important tool in making agronomically efficient production management decisions. N-STaR is a N test used in rice production and is unique in its ability to selectively quantify soil organic-N compounds which are readily mineralizable for plant N uptake and contribute to growth and yield. This study uses historical (2002–2018) adoption rates of N-STaR, which is funded through Rice Checkoff funds, to calculate the total cost savings from N-STaR adoption. These cost savings alone would be the “typical” benefits used in a benefit-cost ratio of a public ally funded research program like N-STaR. However, we …

Stress Among Ncaa Division Ii Head Coaches, Dee Gerlach

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify factors that create stress among head coaches at the National Association Athletic Association Division II level. Data was collected through a demographic questionnaire and the Coaching Issues Survey (CIS), a tool used to measure specific factors that may create stress among coaches. The factors of the CIS include four subscales: Athlete-Concerns, Time-Role, Program-Success, and Win-Loss. Participants (N=416) consisted of head coaches representing the following sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s and women’s golf, softball, women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s tennis. The independent variables for this …

Peer Irrigators And The Choice Of Field Management And Water Control Practices For Irrigation In Arkansas, Victoria Bailey, Kent Kovacs, Christopher Henry, Qiuqiong Huang, Larry J. Krutz

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examined how irrigation techniques in use by family and friends influence the use and share of land utilizing different irrigation techniques by Arkansas producers. A bivariate sample selection model simultaneously estimated how farm characteristics determine the use and explain the share of a farm that utilizes an irrigation technique. We found that the irrigation techniques in use by family and friends do affect the irrigation techniques a producer uses and the share of acres utilizing different irrigation techniques. A producer with a family or friend that uses end-blocking irrigation is 41% more likely to use end-blocking themselves. Having a …

“Arkansas Global Changemakers And The Effect Of Collaborative And Disruptive Strategies”, Laurence Hare, Rogelio Garcia Contreras

Research and Social Innovation Publications

In this essay, we consider the ways in which disruptive strategies align with collaborative strategies to produce innovations aimed at ameliorating global challenges in the twenty-first century. Specifically, we consider how they work through our current initiative, Arkansas Global Changemakers, which creates new international partnerships at the local level in order to challenge long-standing obstacles to global social change.

Economic And Ghg Emissions Changes Of Aeration And Gypsum Application, Michael Popp, Karen Renee Lindsay, Amanda Ashworth, Philip Moore, Phillip R. Owens, Taylor Adams, Melissa Mccarver, Becky Roark, Dan Pote, John Pennington

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Alternative pasture management strategies are needed to ensure long-term ecological and economical use of abundantly available poultry litter as a source of valuable nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). In combination with the common practice of broadcasting poultry litter and soil compaction from equipment and livestock traffic, pasture aeration offers the potential for added soil water penetration and reduced nutrient runoff by creating soil perforations ranging length from 5 to 15 cm using metal spikes that penetrate the soil to 15 cm depth. Also, the addition of gypsum can further reduce P runoff. We evaluate different pasture management scenarios …

Does The Belt And Road Initiative Promote Bilateral Political Relations?, Yue Lu, Wei Gu, Ka Zeng

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines the role of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in enhancing political relations between China and its partner countries. We postulate that an international economic cooperation scheme such as the BRI may facilitate commercial exchanges and increase the participating countries’ economic gains. This should generate incentives for these countries to avoid political tensions that may jeopardize mutually beneficial economic exchanges, and to expand the constellation of domestic coalitions in support of cordial diplomatic and political relations. We test the effect of the BRI on bilateral political relations using data on political relations between China and 91 countries …

Heads Up! Arkansas Has A New Llc Act, Carol Goforth

Arkansas Law Notes

This past legislative session Senate Bill 601, sponsored by Senator Jonathan Dismang, was enacted into law, becoming Ark. Act 1041 on April 30, 2021. This act repeals the old LLC Act and adopts the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (“ULLCA”), with minimal changes from the uniform language. This short piece points out some basic information about the Arkansas ULLCA and some of the major changes in Arkansas law applicable to LLCs. While lawyers will obviously need to consult the new statute when actual issues arise, this article should at least provide a “heads up” notice to practitioners with LLCs or …

Alcohol Advertisements On Social Media: A Study Of How Alcohol Advertisements On Social Media Platforms Appeal To Young People, Alexis Campbell

Journalism Undergraduate Honors Theses

Underage drinking is not uncommon and is associated with a number of school, social, legal, emotional, behavioral, health problems, and even death. This research seeks to explore alcohol-related social media advertisements across a variety of alcohol types, alcohol brands, and social media platforms. This was accomplished by a content analysis of the most popular alcohol brands’ advertisements on the Internet that examined the strategies used to appeal to consumers and the overall content patterns and characteristics of online alcohol advertisements. The strategy used differed by brand and alcohol type, but the most common themes included “taste,” “seasonal,” “holiday,” “recipe,” and …

Uk Consumers’ Preferences For Ethical Attributes Of Floating Rice: Implications For Environmentally Friendly Agriculture In Vietnam, Vo Hong Tu, Steven W. Kopp, Nguyen Thuy Trang, Andreas Kontoleon, Mitsuyasu Yabe

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Vietnam plays an important role in bearing global food security. However, Vietnamese rice farmers face several challenges, including pressures to develop sustainable livelihoods while reducing the environmental impacts of their production activities. Various Vietnamese agricultural restructuring policies were promulgated to promote the adoption of environmentally friendly practices to generate high value added for rice farmers, but the farmers are reluctant to adopt them because of perceived lack of demand. Decreasing consumption of rice in Asia and increasing demands in Europe shaped Vietnamese rice exporting policies. New trade agreements, such as the UK–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, offer new target markets for …

Literature Review And Comparative Analysis Of Inland Waterways Transport: "Container On Barge", Fan Bu, Heather Nachtmann

Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Container on Barge (COB) facilitates intermodal transportation by transporting shipping containers on barge tows. COB has seen rapid expansion globally over the past 20 years, providing a cost-efficient, environmentally friendly, and congestion-reducing mode of container transportation. European countries have led COB transportation in both study and application over the past two decades. However, increasing interest is observed in both the USA and Asia. In this literature review and comparative analysis, 135 COB-focused peer-reviewed articles are reviewed and analyzed to systematically describe the development and current status of COB transportation research. The relevant literature is analyzed to reveal publication rates and …

2+2=Cake: A Book Of Conversations About Possibilities In Business And Art, Elizabeth Ann Alspach

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

2+2=CAKE is a toolkit for people interested in creating their own economic container to support their livelihood. Calling upon the entrepreneurial experience of artists and creatives who founded or run organizations, the book and accompanying workbook and motivational posters serve as an incubator, buoy, and affirming resource for those looking to build the economic container in which they make their livelihood.

Leveraging The Supply Chain: An Assessment Of Supply Chain Partners' Influence On Organizational Performance, Jordan M. Barker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The supply chain is recognized as an integral part of the value creation process and a critical driver of performance. Indeed, a supply chain relationship grants buyers and suppliers the opportunity to share in the value generated by their partners, access partner capabilities and resources to enact their own strategic initiatives, and jointly generate value above what each firm could produce in isolation. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how firms can leverage the supply chain to attain superior organizational performance. Specifically, three essays, each focused on a distinct organizational process, explore how supply chain partners influence a …

The First Sign: Detecting Future Financial Fraud From The Ipo Prospectus, Lisa Spadaccini Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine whether it is possible to predict future financial statement fraud using disclosure content prior to the fraud. Specifically, I employ a machine learning algorithm to construct a unique measure based on the lexical cues embedded within a firm’s first public disclosure, the Management’s Discussion and Analysis section of the S-1 filing, during the Initial Public Offering process. I use this measure to predict whether a firm that is not already committing fraud will commit fraud within five years of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) that results in an Accounting or Enforcement Release (AAER). I find …

Audit Firms’ Response To Audit Failures: Evidence From Partner Resource Reallocation, Elizabeth Cowle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I investigate whether audit firms reallocate partner resources following restatement announcements and, consequently, whether a supply-side response is beneficial in mitigating the previously documented implications of realized audit failures. I find a positive association between prior period restatement announcements and the year-over-year percentage change in the number of engagement partners allocated to a local audit office. Further analysis suggests that a supply-side response is beneficial in mitigating the persistence of low-quality audits and lost market share. However, I also find some evidence suggesting that the reallocation of partner resources can be detrimental to audit quality at offices from which partners …

Are Rice Markets In Bangladesh Efficiently Pricing Rice Based On Quality? An Empirical Assessment, Indrani Saha

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rice is an important staple for more than half of the world’s population and is the main staple in Bangladesh, accounting for 65 percent to 70 percent of the daily calorie intake. The importance of rice consumption and the high level of food insecurity in Bangladesh highlights the importance of having markets that efficiently price rice according to consumer preferences. This study aims to assess how effectively rice prices in Bangladesh are reflective of rice quality. More specifically, we estimate how the rice market is currently pricing selected rice quality attributes, such as broken percentage, chalk percentage, kernel size and …

Analyzing The Mediating Effects Of Social Capital And Sense Of Community Between International Student’S College Sports Fan Identification And Acculturation, Kibaek Kim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the number provided by the International Institute of Education (IIE), there are over one million international students enrolled in the United States. Although the number of international students is increasing, the incremental rate started to decrease after reaching its peak in the 2017-2018 academic year. While previous studies focused on the role of leisure activities, such as physical activity participation, to analyze how international students can receive social support from their communities to better acculturate in the U.S., this study focused on the role of spectator sports on providing social support and its effect on international student’s acculturation. …

Naturalistic Decision Making In First Sales Calls: A Narrative Study Of Experienced Technical Sales Professionals, Douglas Williams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The first conversation between business-to-business sellers and new customers comes with the potential for both opportunity and risk. Sellers spend substantial effort gaining the right to engage in a first call with a potential customer. This study fills a gap in the literature by exploring the role of Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) and how it impacts the way experienced technology sales professionals navigate first conversations with new customers. NDM explores how experienced professionals make decisions in high-stakes, real world situations that are ambiguous, time-pressured, and have poorly defined goals. While NDM studies have been performed in other professional disciplines, none …

Essays On Managerial Attributes And Corporate Finance, Juntai Lu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation, I explore how managerial attributes affect corporate policies.

In my first essay, I examine the effects of public firm CEOs’ prior private equity (PE) target experiences on corporate policies. Based on difference-in-differences and propensity score matching analyses, public firm CEOs previously serving as CEOs in PE targets reduce investment by about 15 percent while enhancing patent values by over 7 percent after taking office compared to CEOs without such experiences. The effects are stronger if these CEOs (1) worked in targets invested by more reputable PE firms, (2) worked in targets invested by PE firms known for …

A Multicase Study Exploring The Motivation Of Support Staff In The Office Of The Registrar, April M. Martin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although a large body of research exists within higher education that focuses on factors related to faculty motivation and student motivation, there is limited research concentrated on the motivation of college and university administrative staff. This study examined how job duties, work processes, elements of the work environment, and leadership styles are related to employee motivation, specifically the motivation of front-line support staff who work in the Office of the Registrar. Additionally, I aimed to identify any disconnect between what support staff need and want from supervisors in the Office of the Registrar pertaining to motivation and supervisors’ behavior to …

Centropoly: The Structure Of Educational Failures In The U.S., Martha Bradley-Dorsey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How did a country birthed in individual liberty and voluntary associations create just the opposite in its inflexible, layered, government-controlled public education system? Here, using public choice theory, I explain how near-sighted and unrelated reforms, often based in private motives, gave us what I call the public education centropoly – a hybrid government organization consisting of a set of monopolies layered beneath two additional government levels that especially fails disadvantaged students.

After defending the use of public choice theory (Chapter 1) and summarizing the U.S. public education system formation (Chapter 2), in Chapter 3 I examine the Elementary and Secondary …

Characteristics Of Face-To-Face Communications In Agriculture Marketing And Customer Service, Ashlyn Ussery

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As communication forms evolve, it is important for business leaders to not only follow the trends, but to be data-driven and make calculated decisions that are beneficial for their businesses. In this qualitative study, the researcher sought to describe how Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation used face-to-face and computer-mediated communication methods to communicate as an organization and the value their employees and members place on each communication method. Uses and Gratifications theory was used to guide this research and evaluate the results. This theory is unique in that it does not describe the effect media has on people, like many human …

Unintended Consequences Of Public Policy And Government Regulation On Supply Chain Structure, Conduct, And Performance, Jonathan Phares

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Supply chains, and the firms within them, change their behaviors in response to industry conditions so they can provide efficiency, effectiveness, strategic enablement, and customer utility. Social and economic policies enacted to promote social welfare by correcting market failures can alter these conditions. While these policies may serve their intended purposes, they may also create unintended consequences that may make managing logistics, operations, and supply chains more challenging. This dissertation contributes to the nascent body of knowledge concerning the intended and unintended consequences of policy on supply chain management by examining three unique contextual settings using different methodologies and levels …

The Value Of Assurance Over Internal Controls: Evidence From Mergers And Acquisitions, Ryan Courtlin Cating

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine the value of assurance over internal controls in the mergers and acquisitions setting. Specifically, I examine the how the existence of an internal control audit mandated under Section 404(b) of SOX affects information asymmetry as proxied for by the likelihood of a company becoming the target of an acquisition. I find that companies with internal control audits are significantly more likely to receive bids than their counterparts that do not have an internal control audit. Upon further investigation, I find that the mechanism by which companies are more likely to become the target of an …