Business Commons^™

Balancing Growth And Identity: Tourism, Culture, And Economic Development In Dangriga, Belize, Tristan M. Eddy

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the interplay between tourism development and cultural preservation in Dangriga, Belize. Dangriga is a town with a rich Garifuna heritage, and its residents take great pride in maintaining and sharing their traditions with both future generations and visitors. However, Dangriga remains relatively underdeveloped as a tourist destination. By conducting interviews with community stakeholders, my team and I created a needs analysis focused on the most prominent concerns voiced by residents, while offering an outside perspective. In addition to our experiences in Belize, I conducted independent research on the potential impacts of cruise tourism, the benefits of community-based …

Integrating Data Analytics: Exploring The Best Methods To Evaluate Players’ Performance To Help Gain A Competitive Advantage On The Football Field, Tanner F. Fountain

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

To succeed in the world of sports, leaders need to uncover and utilize any advantage possible in order to gain a competitive advantage over their competition. I discuss how leaders of a sports organization, specifically within the Arkansas Razorback football program, implement the use of analytics on and off the field, as well as how they use their data to create visuals, find potential strengths and weakness, and ultimately help them be more prepared for gameday. Using my personal experience as a Student Analyst for the Razorbacks, along with supplementary information, I share the latest tactics and the strategies for …

How Perceived Political Uncertainty Affects Markets: An Investment Analyst’S Reflection, Avery W. Jacobs

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores the relationship between political uncertainty and financial market behavior, offering reflections based on personal experience as an Investment Analyst at an RIA. It discusses key events and highlights how market perceptions can dramatically influence financial markets. It highlights how an organization can overcome challenges and serve clients in uncertain times.

Reframing Fitness And Nutrition For Women: Understanding Hormonal And Metabolic Differences, Brooke J. Luecke

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores how women can consider approaching fitness, nutrition, and recovery based on the physiological differences between men and women. While much of the existing fitness and nutrition research has been based on male participants generalized to women, this paper aims to woman-centric, tailored recommendations. By focusing on hormonal cycles, metabolism, and muscle physiology, my paper will suggest a need for women to adjust their exercise and dietary practices for optimal health outcomes, including fat loss and raised energy levels. My suggestions in this paper are supported by the latest research, including Dr. Stacy Sims' insights on female health, …

Economically Optimal Soil Sampling Density And Application Technology For Potassium Fertilizer For Soybean In The Mid-Southern Us, Bayarbat Badarch, Aurelie Poncet, Shelby Ridar, Nathan Slaton, Michael Popp

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

To maximize beneficial potassium (K) fertilizer use in irrigated soybean (Glycine max. (L.) Merr.) fields with spatially varying soil-test K (STK), the value of added information from more precise STK maps must be greater than the associated information collection costs. In eleven fields, we modeled the impact of soil sampling densities (SD) ranging from 2.2 samples ha-1 in the largest field (41.2 ha) to 13.59 samples ha-1 in the smallest field (7.4 ha) on STK maps with 0.4 ha grid size. The accuracy of profit-maximizing fertilizer rate prescription maps varied by SD and subsequent yield estimates using either uniform …

Commuting Patterns And Use Of Bus, Cycling, And Walking In Small And Medium-Sized U.S. Cities: An Analysis Of Demographic Influences, Bun Song Lee, Alejandro Pacheco, Dalton Oxford, Troy Rodriguez

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using 2015-2019 American Community Survey block-group data, we study commuting by bus, cycling, and walking in small and medium-sized U.S. cities, where auto-centric urban form raises equity concerns. We center the analysis on supply as well as demand by asking whether service is present where vulnerable residents live. Three results stand out. First, scarcity is pervasive: more than 70 percent of block groups report no bus commuters, indicating widespread transit deserts. Lack of a household vehicle strongly predicts non-automobile commuting and is tightly correlated with the share of very low-income households. Second, relationships vary with network coverage. In both the …

Biosecurity Investment Impacts On Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Control In United States Commercial Turkey Operations, Jada M. Thompson, Kelly Patyk, Victoria Fields, Matthew Branan, Amy Delgado, Kylie Roesler

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is an extremely transmissible virus that poses a significant threat to the U.S. turkey industry through contagion from migratory birds and results in whole-farm depopulation. To combat the disastrous economic impacts of HPAI, this study examined how biosecurity investments may have economic benefits to producers and the industry. Using data collected from a farm-focused survey of commercial turkey producers, the differences in biosecurity practices between farms affected by HPAI and unaffected farms in 2022 were analyzed. This evaluation aims to understand how effective biosecurity investments were towards reducing the susceptibility of a turkey farm to …

Satellite Remote Sensing Reveals Voluntary Cover-Crop Adoption And Crop-Rotation Hotspots In The Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Zobaer Ahmed, Connor Lawson, Kris R. Brye, V. Steven Green, Mike Popp, Aaron Shew, Lawton Nalley

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Government-subsidized programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program provide financial motivation for adopting cover crops. Nevertheless, many producers have internalized the holistic benefits of cover crops and voluntarily adopted them as a sustainable soil management practice. Yet, little is known about how cover crop adoption propagates beyond the first order link between financial incentives and total adopted cover crop acres. This study examined voluntary adoption of winter cover crops as well as which crop rotations had the highest cover crop use in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) region. Cover crop locations were identified using remote …

Measuring The Impact Of Hurricane Incidence On Agricultural Production Risk Using Insurance Data, Hunter D. Biram, Micah Cameron-Harp, Jesse Tack

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hurricanes are considered among the most destructive natural disasters in the United States. The exposure of agricultural production systems to hurricanes varies between regions in contrast to global risks like commodity price volatility and international trade policies. The regional differences in hurricane exposure may lead to heterogeneity in crop insurance premium rates. This work aims to measure the impact of hurricane incidence on production losses for crops grown in the Mississippi Delta. We leverage a county-month panel of insurance losses spanning 2002-2021 from the US Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency, and daily data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric …

Minority Farmer And Rancher Delinquency And Local Cultural Climate: Evidence From Farm Service Agency's County Office Committees, Lawson Connor, Bruce L. Ahrendsen, Charles B. Dodson, Logan Moss

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Farm delinquency is linked to many negative indicators of farm survival, including increased risk of bankruptcy and farm failure. Minority farmers and ranchers (MFR) have been found to exhibit higher rates of delinquency on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) loans compared to their non-Hispanic White male counterparts. These findings persist even after accounting for economic/financial factors expected to predict loan repayment performance. In this study, to further explore the existing discrepancy between loan default rates for MFR and White, non-Hispanic borrowers, we look more broadly than financial indicators and introduce MFR representation on the FSA County …

Volkswagen And The Volksprodukte: The Failed Revolution In Production And Consumption In The Third Reich, Stuart Bailey

The Ozark Historical Review

Volksprodukte, with its utilization of consumption as a societal bond, was a crucial aspect for creating class harmony in Hitler's National Socialism. This paper discusses the influence of Henry Ford's manufacturing processes in supporting societal cohesion and their application to Volkswagen manufacture and the greater societal implications.

The Impact Of Politics And Identity On Instagram: Exploring The Impacts On Social Connections, Kaslyn Tidmore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates how political and identity signals on Instagram-specifically pronoun usage, LGBTQ+ representation, support for political figures, and religious expression-influence perceptions of political leaning, perceived similarity (homophily), and willingness to connect or engage with both individuals and brands. Using a between-subjects experimental design, 222 participants were exposed to mock Instagram profiles systematically varying these indicators. Results from a chi-square test of independence revealed that political indicators in profiles significantly shaped participants’ perceptions of users’ political leanings. Among the indicators, support for a political figure repeatedly reported as the strongest predictor of perceived political leaning, social similarity, and willingness to …

Sound Decisions: The Impact Of Music Genre In Fashion Advertising On Consumer Perceptions And Purchase Intention, Cassandra Thomas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how music genre, brand type, and the perceived congruency between the two influences consumer perceptions of fashion advertising. Guided by Congruity Theory and Attitude Theory, this study employed a 3x3 experimental design in which 252 participants viewed one of nine advertisement conditions varying by music genre (pop, hip-hop, electronic) and brand type (activewear, fast fashion, luxury). A series of one-way ANOVAs, bivariate correlations, and regression analyses were conducted to interpret the effects of music genre, brand type, and perceived congruency on attitudes toward 1) the advertisement and brand, 2) credibility of the advertisement and brand, and 3) …

Enclothe: Oer Implementation And Evaluation For A Fashion Show Theory And Production Course, Christine Rickabaugh, Sarah West Hixson

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

The ENCLOTHE Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook was developed and implemented for a Fashion Show Theory and Production course at a Mid-Southern University in the United States. This case study examines the effectiveness of this specialized OER in addressing the unique needs of an upper-division capstone fashion course. The textbook, designed to replace a costly industry-focused resource, offers interactive modules, video clips, and assignments compatible with learning management systems. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the study evaluated students' perceptions of the textbook's usefulness and ease of use across time points during the semester. Student data revealed consistently high TAM …

Sustainability: Buzz Word Or Future Of Fashion? Measuring The Feasibility Of Outright Sustainability Among Fast Fashion’S Biggest Agents, Ryan Miller

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

The fashion industry is currently experiencing unsustainable rates of pollution within its supply chains. The rapid increase in demand for short lead times perpetrated by large-scale retailers has led to hazardous practices negatively affecting both the environmental conditions and working conditions of producing countries. With this increased pressure, relationships between brands and suppliers have become untenable. Limited transparency and imbalanced power dynamics at the hand of the industry’s leading retailers require restructuring in order to build more sustainable and equitable supply-chain practices. Further, governmental regulation is currently limited in its capacity to enforce sustainable business practices on a global …

Fostering Economic Advancement Through Tourism Development In Dangriga, Belize, Ella S. Baker

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper discusses the relationship between economic development and the development of the tourism industry, based on a two-month project in Dangriga, Belize, which existed through collaboration of four University of Arkansas students, local community members and business owners, and organizational partners. This project explored sustainable tourism with the goal of benefiting the community's continued economic advancement.

Firm Disclosures And Retail Investor Behavior: The Role Of Information Type, Disagreement, And Social Networks, Hansol Yoon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines whether disclosure characteristics–specifically hard versus soft information–influence disagreement among retail investors, whether due to differences in information sets or interpretation, and how such disagreement subsequently affects trading volume. Using a sample of 85,050 earnings conference calls and StockTwits disagreement data from 2010 to 2021, I find that hard information (i.e., earnings figures) is negatively associated with investor disagreement, while soft information (i.e., forward-looking statements) is positively associated with it. Further analysis reveals that the disclosure characteristics impact trading activity only indirectly, through their influence on investor disagreement. Additionally, I examine the moderating role of social network centrality, …

Performance And Feasibility Of Pasture Rangeland And Forage Insurance In The Delta Region, Walker Bradley Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite being available nationwide since 2016, enrollment in Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) insurance remains low in many regions of the country. The program's performance also presents regional discrepancies, with loss ratios varying significantly. Studies that have simplified the complexity of interval selection for producers have been shown to positively affect PRF enrollment. Such studies remain limited in several forage-producing areas. This study aims to address the lack of information in Arkansas specifically. Arkansas has among the nation's lowest participation rates and loss ratios. Low loss ratios signal that participants pay more in premiums than received in indemnities and may …

Evidence On The Quality Of Segment Profit/Loss Disclosures And Its Determinants, Hiba A. Abu Sammour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Investors have recently indicated that disclosed descriptions of segment profit/loss measures are useful, but insufficient. Clear and detailed descriptions are essential for helping investors understand the segment profit/loss measure employed, especially since these measures may not align with measures from the consolidated income statement under the “management approach.” To better understand investors’ concerns, I hand-collect data from segment profit/loss disclosures and develop a measure that captures a dimension of disclosure quality specific to this setting: the extent to which segment profit/loss disclosures effectively describe the segment profit/loss measure employed. The measure considers the level of detail provided and the ease …

Social Connections And Capital Allocation In Multidivisional Firms, Tomas Jandik, Tatiana Salikhova

Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

The inefficiency of internal capital allocation is considered one source of losses due to diversification. We use a hand-collected sample of divisional managers in S&P 500 industrial conglomerates and find that social connections among divisional managers are associated with capital allocation improvements. Segments' investments become more sensitive to segments' growth opportunities when these segments are led by better-connected managers. For connected managers, the probability of being assigned to a segment with low investment opportunities increases significantly with investment opportunities of connected segments. Firm-level connectedness is associated with higher firm values primarily in firms with high diversity in segment investment opportunities, …

Cultural Worldview And Rural Consumer Preferences For Genetically Modified Foods, Nathan P. Kemper

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

The consumer acceptance of genetically modified (GM) foods varies widely based on personal values and social context. This study investigates how cultural worldviews—measured through the Individualism–Communitarianism and Hierarchical–Egalitarianism dimensions—affect willingness to pay (WTP) for food labeling attributes related to GM content. We surveyed 932 U.S. primary grocery shoppers and conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with poultry product options. Using a Mixed Logit model and supplemental cognitive data from Query Theory, we find that rural individualists are more accepting of GM-labeled products. At the same time, urban communitarians show a stronger preference for non-GM labels. These results offer insight into …

The Effects Of Extreme Weather On Rural Transportation Infrastructure And Crop Prices Along The Lower Mississippi River, James Mitchell, Hunter D. Biram

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extreme weather events are worsening the fragile rural infrastructure in the United States, impacting trade flows of agricultural products. The Mississippi River, vital for transporting agricultural commodities, reached historic lows during the 2022 and 2023 fall harvests, increasing transportation costs and lowering crop prices. This paper estimates the cost of these drought events by analyzing Arkansas soybean basis data and Mississippi River stream gauge data. Low river levels significantly weaken soybean prices, with the impact being a function of a grain market's distance to a river port. Findings have implications for public policy investment in rural infrastructure and risk management …

New Sheriff In Town: A Quad Model Approach To Examining The Consequences Of Selecting A Qualified Lead Independent Directors, Dinesh Hasija, Alan Ellstrand, Jason W. Ridge, Jon Johnson

Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Venture Innovation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research SummaryThe lead independent director (LID) position was adopted primarily to increase the efficiency of the monitoring function of the board. However, evidence of whether and how LIDs influence board monitoring has been limited. We apply and test the theoretical quad model in the context of the LID to examine whether selecting a qualified LID helps improve monitoring within the board. We argue that when a board appoints a qualified LID, it improves overall board monitoring, along with board meeting facilitation and interpersonal interactions between the board and shareholders. Using a sample of US firms, we find that firms that …

Employee Engagement In The Manufacturing Industry, Aubrey A. Miller

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The primary objective of this paper is to analyze employee engagement in the manufacturing industry while explaining the implementation processes for putting engagement initiatives in place. Employee engagement has shown to have an impact on overall business performance and this paper examines the original introduction of engagement in a workplace setting, theories relating to employee engagement, the need for engagement in the manufacturing industry, the key drivers of employee engagement, and human resource practices. This paper also walks through my 10-week internship with Klein Tools, and the processes I took to implementing employee engagement methods at Klein Tools’ manufacturing plant …

Experiential Advertising: The Immersive Evolution Of Marketing, Julianna Ferguson

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

Experiential advertising is revolutionizing marketing by creating immersive, emotionally resonant brand environments that foster consumer engagement and loyalty. This thesis explores the integration of experiential design in commercial branding, emphasizing how sensory-driven storytelling enhances brand identity and consumer connections. Through case studies such as the Gucci Garden in Florence, this research highlights the effectiveness of flagship stores, pop-ups, and sensory campaigns in transcending traditional advertising methods. Employing firsthand observations and analytical frameworks, the study identifies critical design strategies, including interactive installations and curated spaces, that reshape retail environments into platforms for emotional connection and advocacy. Findings reveal that experiential design …

Analytics & Insights Internship At Market Performance Group, Ava Mccrary

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

An Honors Thesis discussing the growth of analytics in the corporate world.

Supply Chain Management Internship- Fastenal, Jared C. Fuller

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Procurement and supply management; transportation and distribution management; and inventory and forecasting analytics, are all familiar course names for the University of Arkansas students earning their supply chain management degree. These courses outline some of the crucial departments of the supply chain. In my internship, during the summer of 2024, I was amid a combination of school knowledge and industry experience. Working at a warehouse fulfillment center I operated at the last mile of the supply chain completing tasks in all three departments.

Mindful Symbiotic Ecosystems. Designing For Women In Remote Workspaces, Andrea Guevara Araujo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women represent 61% of designers in the workforce but hold only 29% of leadership roles. This disparity highlights a critical need for an ecosystem that removes barriers and cultivates mentorship, community, and leadership among women (Bolt, 2020). Even though women have proven their ability to succeed in male-dominated corporate cultures, the real question is not about capability but sustainability. Driven by overwork, competition, and burnout, the workplace does not just push women out; it leads to long-term instability for the entire organization (Krivkovich et al., 2024). In the workplace, a culture of masculinity reinforces harmful, outdated mindsets and glorifies aggressive, …

Comparative Analysis Of Legal Systems: Unraveling The Key Distinctions Between The United States And Spain, Lucy Vanover

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores the key differences between self-defense laws in the United States and Spain, two countries with distinct legal frameworks. In the U.S., self-defense is governed by a variety of laws that discuss the scope of reasonable force and apply this framework on the basis of precedent. In contrast, Spain, under the Civil Code, applies a more unified approach to self- defense.

A 360 Perspective About Corporate Finance, Braden C. Fancher

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis provides a comprehensive reflection on the author's experience in the “Finance 360” rotational internship program at Burns & McDonnell, a program designed to expose interns to the diverse functions within a corporate finance and accounting department. Over the course of 10 weeks, the author completed 12 different rotations, gaining hands-on experience across various financial disciplines. This paper highlights five rotations—Operational Financial Analysts, Financial Analytics, Internal Audit, Project Accounting, and Investments—that had the greatest impact on reshaping the author’s understanding of corporate finance. These experiences revealed the deep integration of finance with accounting, analytics, and strategic decision-making, far beyond …